90-day trial promises empty - Labour MP

Grant Robertson. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Government is being accused of making empty promises after saying the 90-day trial period for new workers would be voluntary, and then asking all public sector employers to include it in all contracts.

But the State Services Commission is defending an email sent to government agencies, which said that they were expected to implement Government policy, including the 90-day trial.

"Agencies should not 'contract out of' aspects of the new provisions or contract to restrict any application of them," the email said.

Several unions have been seeking - some successfully - collective contracts specifically exempting members from the trial period.

The trial period - which comes into effect in April - will mean that all new workers who agree to it will not be able to take a personal grievance case if they are dismissed.

State Services Commission spokesman Jason Ryan said the email was nothing more than guidance for public sector chief executives to "act lawfully and implement government policy".

But Labour's state services spokesman Grant Robertson said the email made a mockery of the claim that the trial period would be optional.

"I actually asked [Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson] in Parliament about the application of the law to the State Sector. She said that the law is 'optional not compulsory', and that it was up to the sector and groups to ask for a 90-day trial period if they want it.

"This is totally at odds with what the State Services Commission now says."

A spokesman for Ms Wilkinson said a provision in the contract that the trial period might apply did not make it compulsory.

"Workers are free to negotiate whether it applies."

If agreements were made to explicitly exclude workers from the trial-period - which unions are seeking - then neither employers or workers would have the chance of using it, the spokesman said.

The Service and Food Workers Union has about 3000 members in collective agreements exempting workers from the trial period, while the Tertiary Education Union has similar agreements with Massey and Victoria universities.

"It wouldn't be very attractive for [academic staff] to move to New Zealand from overseas on the basis that they could lose their job within 90 days with no comeback," said TEU deputy secretary Nanette Cormack.

Fonterra's employment relations manager Sally Beard said Fonterra did not have a signed agreement with the Dairy Workers Union, but it did not use trial periods.

"Even if we could introduce such a trial period, we are unlikely to do so because of the investment we make in recruitment and training."

It is thought that the trial period cannot apply to collective contracts unless the provision is explicitly written in the contract, but the law has yet to be tested in court.

Employers can add terms and conditions on top of a collective contract, but they must be consistent with the collective agreement.