Workers need a break, says Labour

Labour Minister Paul Swain

Labour wants all workers to get proper meal breaks and may legislate to give them the entitlement.

The plan is part of Labour's employment relations policy, released yesterday by Prime Minister Helen Clark and Labour Minister Paul Swain.

Helen Clark said that before the 1991 Employment Contracts Act, entitlements like refreshment and meal breaks were written into the awards system.

"When that went it was only workers who could negotiate a contract who got those things locked in, so it's something that needs to be addressed in the minimum code.

"It may well require legislation but with the code we like to work it through with both sides of the industrial equation, with the worker voice and with the employer voice."

Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson welcomed the move, saying that in some situations workers were simply not allowed to take breaks.

That was generally in low-paid service and processing industries.

But Business NZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly said he was not aware of any problems in workplaces with staff going without tea or meal breaks, and Labour had not yet established the need for the measure.

National labour relations spokesman Wayne Mapp said the plan was "just the sort of heavy-handed, Helen- knows-best approach that you would expect out of Labour".

Both British and New Zealand surveys have shown workers are slowly losing their lunch breaks.

One British survey published last year by catering firm Eurest revealed one in five people did not take a lunch break.

Mercer HR Consulting in New Zealand did a similar survey showing similar results. It put the reason for lost lunchbreaks down to two factors: work pressures and the disappearance of work canteens.

Other plans in Labour's policy include:

* Urgently amend Employment Relations Act to clarify the intent of the law relating to "vulnerable" workers following a July Employment Court ruling that involved cleaning contractors.

* Examine adequacy of redundancy laws.

* Ensure greater protection for contractors and strengthen rights of workers employed by temporary work agencies and labour hire firms.

* Encourage central and local government organisations to facilitate multi-employer collective agreements (Mecas) when sought by unions.

Helen Clark said the Employment Court case involving a cleaning contract in Dunedin was "clearly contrary" to the intent of changes made last year to the Employment Relations Act, designed to protect vulnerable staff when their work has been sold or contracted out.

The case involved the awarding of a kindergarten cleaning contract to Crest Commercial Cleaning, from another firm, Southern Cleaning Services. Crest had a long-standing practice of engaging franchisees but the Southern staff refused to become franchisees, and tried to transfer their employment to Crest on the same terms and conditions which they had at Southern. They failed.

Mr O'Reilly said Labour's plan to change the law was a "very sad thing". "Essentially what they are doing there is interfering in the rights of contractors to run their business in a fair and businesslike fashion."

Helen Clark used the policy's release on a visit to the Griffins Foods factory in Papakura to accuse National of wanting to implement an industrial relations agenda written by the Business Roundtable.

She said leaked emails between the Roundtable and National leader Don Brash made it clear that his party's "true agenda" was to remove legal minimum wages, holidays and workplace health and safety regulations, and privatise ACC.

However, Dr Mapp said Labour's policy hinted at its continued agenda to re-regulate workplaces.

"The next steps they will do is try and reintroduce the Meca thing. That will be the price they will have to pay to the unions."