The Essay On NZ Labour Party's Ideology And Employment Relations Policy.

Introduction of New Zealand Labour Party

Question:

Discuss About The Gaps In Indigenous Disadvantage Not Closing?

The New Zealand Labour Party is one center-left party in New Zealand. The labour party has dominated the New Zealand government and the party is considered to have democratic socialism principles (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). The party observes labour as pragmatic one and it was formed in the year 1916. The president of the party is Nigel Haworth and the General Secretary of the party is Andrew Kirton (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). The headquarters of the party is located at Wellington. The constituents of the pay include various trade unions and the socialist parties of New Zealand. The concern aims to provide universal rights to self-respect, dignity and different opportunities to work to the residents. The labour party ensures that there is equal access to the different economic, social, political, cultural and other factors so that there is equal distribution of wealth among the people of New Zealand (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017).

This research essay would strive to analyze the political ideology of New Zealand Labour Party and their key elements of the employment relations policy. There have been subsequent changes in the labour dynamics of New Zealand which has impacted the overall employee relations. Their various proposals regarding the employment relations would be discussed in detail.

According to Holt (2013), in the year 1936, there was compulsory trade unionism of the New Zealand Labour Party and there was a subsequent change in the character as well as structure of the body. There was provision of the individual membership through the affiliated membership of the trade unions and through the local branches (Schulman, 2015). The growth of the labour party was due to the different sociological basis of the labour movements in various parts of the world. New Zealand is a non-ideological country in which the ideology of the labour party remains a constant affair (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). The private correspondence between the different party activists remains a reliable option (Kelsey, 2015).

The labour rights in the state of New Zealand are governed by the Employment Relations Act 2000 formulated by the parliament of New Zealand (Rashbrooke, 2013). The New Zealand Labour Party has formulated various policies for the betterment of the working population in New Zealand. The labour would like to raise the minimum wage of the workers to $16.50 per hour and the future salary hikes would be based on the real cost of living (which is actually based on the people with low incomes) (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). All the public sector employees would be paid living wage of around $15m and this would also include the different contractors. As argued by Bailey et al. (2015), the labour party has designated new workplace relations package.

Labour Rights in New Zealand

There would be introduction of the “Fair Pay Agreements” in which there is a basic, fair employment condition, which is spread across the industry and that is based on the employment standards of that particular industry. The policy also aims that the promotion of the living wage by making payment to all the workers in the public service domain (Stringer et al., 2014). The new policy of the labour party would mean a happy time for the employees. The historical interventions prove that the statutory employment law has played a major role in the fair treatment of the workers and ensuring that the freedom of association is being protected (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). The current law ensures that there is basic fairness provided to the employees. However, the access to enforcement of employment rights is becoming harder since each passing days.

The New Zealand Labour Party also has policies of giving employment to 10,000 young volunteers so that there is a significant improvement of the environment. As opined by James (2015), the party aims to give job opportunities for the unemployed youths for duration of six months and engage themselves in public work. This would help them to gain necessary work experience as well as gain long-term employment (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). There would be various kinds of projects given such as community and environmental projects. The mentors employed would assist in the work preparedness and training.

The New Zealand Labour Party strives to make a fair employment relation with not only the employees but also help the young entrepreneurs to start their businesses in the country. As stated by Mitrou et al. (2014), the “Young Entrepreneurs Policy” of the labour party aims to allow the New Zealander citizens whose age is between 18 to 23 years to receive grants of amount $20,000 to initiate their new business that can be based on a new business idea (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). However, Mason and Brown (2013) argue that the entrepreneurs should have undergone a business training program that would be paid and have a business mentor.

The political ideology of the New Zealand Labour Party was first based on a capitalist notion. However, later with time, there was a shift of the policies towards a democratic one. As stated by O'Brien and Kessler (2014), the labour party plans to make the multinational organizations pay a fair share. The labour party aims to collect an extra amount of $200m every year from the multinational companies who are in the process of avoiding tax obligations (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). The labour party has announced that those multinational companies who are not eager to pay the fair share would be introduced to pay a profit tax. The tax authorities of the countries have the right to impose a tax penalty if they found the companies have deliberately avoided the payment of taxes(New Zealand Labour Party, 2017).

Employment Policies and Innovations

The New Zealand Labour Party aims to appoint various union supervisors to formulate a new Workplace Commission to address the various “Industry Standard Agreements” for several industries (Rasmussen et al., 2016). This commission would ensure that the rights of the employees are restored. This would also ensure that there is better scope for negotiations, which also ensures that there are more recruitment of staffs (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). The employees who are outside the trade unions would be given relevant information about joining any particular trade unions. The aim of the Work Commission is to change the nature of the work and address the change related to the employment relations (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). The aim of the commission is to improve the direction, vision and policies for social and economic program which would enable the citizens of New Zealand to change the nature of work (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). The Commission aims to change the nature of work in terms of several parameters such as decent jobs, low unemployment rates, higher wages greater security and highly skilled workers. It also aims to interview the various people regarding the changing nature of work and how they feel about the changing labour conditions (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). The labour party also aims to provide professional career advice which is integrated into the learning process. This would ensure that the students and the employee are able to develop personalized career paths, which would help them to have a fulfilling career (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017).

The Labour Party of New Zealand aims to give the children a better life from early childhood and minimize the stress on the working parents (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). This is the reason they have set paid parental leave for the working population due to which they would be able to take care of their families in a better manner (Stratford, 2016). There has been an extension in the parental leaves by the longevity as well as coverage. The employment polices guaranteed a paid parental leave of 18 weeks, which has now been extended to 26 weeks. There would be phased implementation of the policy from 22 weeks in 2018 to 26 weeks in the year 2020 (Dann, 2015). This policy would have great positive impacts on the child development as well as enhancing the infant-parent attachment (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017). The labour policy has decided this extended parental leave policy in accordance with the standards of World Health Organization (WHO). WHO recommends a period of 26 weeks for exclusive breastfeeding till the child attains six months of age (New Zealand Labour Party, 2017).

Fairness and Equality in Employment

The labour party of New Zealand has also promised that there would be minimal “surprise taxes” till the year 2020, which would improve its probabilities in the national election campaigns (Laine, 2016). The labour party also aims to support free trade, which would enhance the global protectionism. The labour party is concentrating on wide range of aspects such as equality, growth, security, skills and technology.

Conclusion

 New Zealand Labour Party was founded in the year 1916 and it has gone though many social, political and economic transformation. There was compulsory trade unionism of the New Zealand Labour Party and there were several individual membership policies. The labour rights in the state of New Zealand are governed by the Employment Relations Act 2000. There has been rise of minimum wage of the workers to $16.50 per hour. The introduction of Fair Pay Agreements would ensure basic, fair employment condition across all the industries. New Zealand Labour Party offered employment options to 10,000 young volunteers so that there is a significant improvement of the environment. The Young Entrepreneurs Policy permits New Zealanders aged between 18 to 23 years to receive grants of amount $20,000 so that they can start their new business. The labour party has also enforced the multinational organizations to pay a fair share. The New Zealand Labour Party formulated new Workplace Commission to address the various “Industry Standard Agreements” for different industries. The paid parental leave for the working population for 26 weeks has benefitted many young couples. It is expected that the New Zealand Labour Party would bring good and innovative policies for the employees who would bring prosperity to the country.

References

Bailey, J., Price, R., Pyman, A., & Parker, J. (2015). Union power in retail: contrasting cases in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (Online), 40(1), 1.

Dann, C. (2015). Up from under: women and liberation in New Zealand, 1970–1985. Bridget Williams Books.

Holt, J. (2013). Compulsory arbitration in New Zealand: The first forty years. Auckland University Press.

James, C. (2015). New Territory: The Transformation of New Zealand, 1984–92. Bridget Williams Books.

Kelsey, J. (2015). The New Zealand experiment: A world model for structural adjustment?. Bridget Williams Books.

Laine, J. (2016). Outsourcing and centralizing corporate accounting-Case Aspo.

Mason, C., & Brown, R. (2013). Creating good public policy to support high-growth firms. Small Business Economics, 40(2), 211-225.

Mitrou, F., Cooke, M., Lawrence, D., Povah, D., Mobilia, E., Guimond, E., & Zubrick, S. R. (2014). Gaps in Indigenous disadvantage not closing: a census cohort study of social determinants of health in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand from 1981–2006. BMC Public Health, 14(1), 201.

New Zealand Labour Party. (2017). New Zealand Labour Party. Retrieved 15 September 2017, from https://www.labour.org.nz

O'Brien, P. J., & Kessler, J. H. (2014). The Global Employer: The Labor Relations and Collective Agreements Issue.

Rashbrooke, M. (Ed.). (2013). Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis. Bridget Williams Books.

Rasmussen, E., Rasmussen, E., Foster, B., Foster, B., Farr, D., & Farr, D. (2016). The battle over employers’ demand for “more flexibility” Attitudes of New Zealand employers. Employee Relations, 38(6), 886-906.

Schulman, J. (2015). The New Zealand Labour Party. In Neoliberal Labour Governments and the Union Response (pp. 17-44). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Stratford, M. (2016). The impact of paid parental leave on gender equity in New Zealand: case studies.

Stringer, C., Simmons, G., Coulston, D., & Whittaker, D. H. (2014). Not in New Zealand’s waters, surely? Linking labour issues to GPNs. Journal of Economic Geography, 14(4), 739-758.