Minister, concerns from business aren't junk

Thursday, 28 June 2018

The problem for the Government is that confidence is not going to improve as long as they insist on pushing ahead with their proposed changes to industrial legislation.

OPINION: I talk to businesspeople every day, from owners and managers of multi-employee companies to sole-charge operators that make up a big chunk of the business community.

In many ways it's the best part of my job – talking to people who work the coalface and make decisions every day to ensure their businesses, and the economy, keep ticking over.

Much of what I hear is grounding stuff. Despite what some choose to believe, the business world can be a harsh place.

Whatever their size and influence, I regard their concerns and opinions as equally valid and valued as a barometer on the health of the economy.

* Fact check: Business confidence surveys have little to do with actual economy**

* The Government needs to get its work story straight

Which was why, when a government minister recently said one of the biggest business confidence surveys going around was 'junk', I was puzzled.

I assume he didn't like its findings, which showed confidence continuing a subdued trend since the election. That means he also won't like the Wellington Chamber's quarterly survey or the others that do the rounds, because they're all telling the same story.

Business confidence surveys ask businesses about how they're feeling and what they expect to happen to themselves and the national economy. They reflect what I'm being told face-to-face, and I doubt the minister would be willing to tell too many of these businesspeople to their face that what they're saying is junk.

Of course, confidence surveys are only one component, but they're important because it's people telling it like it is. Not to lecture, but we all know that in politics especially, perception is reality.

The problem for the Government is that confidence is not going to improve as long as they insist on pushing ahead with their proposed changes to industrial legislation.

Two weeks ago in this column, I expressed serious concerns about the effects the removal of 90-day trial periods from companies with more than 20 employees would have on employment, workers and the economy.

John Milford: 'Despite what some choose to believe, the business world can be a harsh place.'

But there are three other parts of the Employment Relations Amendment Bill as it's drafted that will further reduce flexibility and harm the growth prospects of businesses.

They are provisions that allow union reps to enter a workplace without permission, force businesses to settle collective agreements even if they don't or can't agree, and force them to join a multi-employer collective agreement (MECA).

Employers and unions presently have good relationships, and I imagine most unions would still give notice of a wish to enter a workplace whatever the legislation says, so why the wish to return to the 'us-vs-them' fortress mentality of the 1970s? Where's the benefit?

Similarly, rather than improving industrial relations, removing the right of employers to opt out of bargaining is likely to make it worse. Both parties can now opt out but removing only the employers' right to do so is asking for trouble and bad agreements created under duress.

If that doesn't cause its own friction, forcing businesses to join a MECA will. This provision forces every company in an industry that has workers in the same union to agree to the negotiated multi-employer collective, irrespective of how well the company treats and pays its employees, or wants to. What's more, employees not in the union won't be able to negotiate better conditions than those who are.

None of this is fair, and it's definitely not the way to foster good workplace relations.

I'd like someone to tell me how this all fits into modern thinking in a modern workplace.

Kiwi employers aren't oppositional or adversarial. They support thinking where everyone's a winner from a settled and productive workplace.

What's proposed is old thinking that's threatening to take us back to the industrial strife of the 1970s.

Employers agree with the goal of developing a modern, high-performing economy, but they would like to understand how dredging up failed and divisive labour laws will help that happen.

John Milford is chief executive of Wellington Chamber of Commerce and Business Central.