This Supplementary Order Paper amends the Employment Relations Amendment Bill by deleting clauses 13 and 14 of the Bill.

The clauses as they currently stand remove the employer’s ability to opt out of a collective agreement concerning 2 or more employers. The main amendment in this Supplementary Order Paper removes the duty on parties to bargain and conclude a multi-party collective agreement. Adding forced industry-wide collective bargaining will add costs to businesses, impinge significantly on commercial confidentiality, and also take choices away from workers.

The amendments proposed in clauses 13 and 14 regarding compulsion to settle multi-party collective agreements conflict with the object of the principal Act to build productive employment relationships through the promotion of good faith principles throughout the whole employer/employee relationship.