22 Aug 2012

Minister denies law change will disadvantage workers

9:30 am on 22 August 2012

Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson is adamant proposed law changes will help boost workers' wages, even though her own Cabinet paper says they will allow employers to pay less.

Under the new law, workers will no longer be placed on the conditions of a collective contract for the first 30 days of their employment.

A Cabinet paper obtained by Radio New Zealand says that will allow employers to offer lesser conditions.

However, Ms Wilkinson denies that changing the 30-day rule will disadvantage workers: "I would envisage it would be working by employees being offered actually better conditions," she told Parliament on Tuesday.