Changes are being made by the National government to employment law under the claim that they will give more flexibility in the workplace.
The sad part is that the flexibility to be sold as good for all, but this is a government tied to business. New Zealand First stands up for everyone, businesses and workers alike. We are for New Zealand being a fair place.
So we do not support a government bill that wants to do away with work breaks.
Tea breaks and lunch breaks, like many of our working conditions, were set in place over blood, sweat and tears.
They may seem to be a minor part of employment laws but they represent something much bigger.
They are what we are today. A country with reasonable working conditions, though these have been chipped away in the last few decades.
They represent the transition from working conditions when people were forced to work long hours in appalling conditions. Many died on the job. Many were maimed and could never work again. Work sometimes was a sentence of death.
Workers stook up against mean employers, and ill meaning governments, and over a long period of time improved working conditions.
The work breaks are part of the focus of the new bill and could end in workers being enticed to trade them away for a small pay rise or some other benefit. So if you are working at a bakery for example you may well have to tend hot ovens for five hours or so on end, without a break.
A National Minister even suggested that some workers might not need a break at all because they probably just snacked on nuts all day.
Well here’s some news for you Minister. People get tired. They lose their concentration span after a period of time. They get injuries from doing the same task over and over again. People need a break.
With a record number of people coming to live in New Zealand we hear some employers say they relish having foreign workers – “they’ll work 24 hours a day”. This is a sure fire way to increase claims on ACC we should be embarrassed to treat workers like that.
Conditions in the workplace are there for a reason and make the workplace a fair place for all – employee and employer. That’s makes for New Zealand being a fair place.