The National Party has voiced outrage at both the content and the timing of a release of a draft code on good-faith bargaining.
The draft code suggests incorporating the Treaty of Waitangi into employee contracts.
And it allows people only one week to forward their submissions on the idea, which National has attacked as "ridiculous consultation."
The code was developed by a committee of representatives from worker and employer groups, at the request of Labour Minister Margaret Wilson.
Committee chairman Walter Grills reported on Friday that progress had been made, although there were some areas where the two sides had not reached a consensus.
These included questions over whether a Treaty of Waitangi clause should be included in employment contracts.
The committee has set a final date of next Monday for submissions on the draft code.
This means it can be finalised before the Employment Relations Act comes into force on October 2.
National industrial relations spokesman Max Bradford said his party would oppose the code "right down the line."
"There is nothing particularly new in it except for the proposal by the PSA [Public Service Association] and CTU [Combined Trade Unions] to require the insertion of effectively a Treaty of Waitangi clause in every collective agreement."
He said the notion of having a treaty clause in every collective agreement raised "enormous implications about what the Treaty of Waitangi actually means in employment contracts."
The treaty had never been an issue before and its relevance to the relationship between workers and employers was highly questionable, Mr Bradford said.
"Why should Maori get some sort of preferential treatment in employment relations over other groups like Pacific Islanders or Pakeha?" he demanded.
"We believe this is just a Trojan horse for the agenda of the Government."
Mr Bradford also expressed concern about the committee's lack of consultation and the tight timeframe for submissions.
"This is absolutely ridiculous consultation," he said. But his criticism is levelled primarily at the Government for leaving the hard questions up to other groups to answer.
"Essentially, the Government could not or was not bright enough to think of what the principles of good faith bargaining should be, so they have left it to ... employers and unions to do that.
"I would have expected the Government to answer more of those questions when they put the legislation through the House," Mr Bradford said.
- NZPA
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