Latest / Best of Business / Brooke van Velden: Workplace Relations Minister on the Government's plan to clarify gig workers and contractor criteria in new law

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Brooke van Velden: Workplace Relations Minister on the Government's plan to clarify gig workers and contractor criteria in new law · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalks be follow this
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Our workplace rules are in for a shake up. Government
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  Speaker 2: looking to change the Employment Relations Act to make it
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  Speaker 2: easier to define who's an employee who's a contractor. Workplace
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  Speaker 2: Relations and Safety Minister Brook van Builden is with us
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  Speaker 2: on all of this. Very good morning to you.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning mate.
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  Speaker 2: What's the timeframe on this, Because you're on the program
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  Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago and ask you the same question,
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  Speaker 2: you're being all coy about it then, so what's changed
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  Speaker 2: and what's the timeframe?
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  Speaker 4: Well, Siste, what this government has committed to under the
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  Speaker 4: Coalition Agreement is to provide more certainty for contractors and
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  Speaker 4: employees about the distinction between contract arrangements. So we're clarifying
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  Speaker 4: that under the law to provide a new gateway test
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  Speaker 4: which says if you meet for criteria, then you will
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  Speaker 4: be found as a individual contractor. So that means if
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  Speaker 4: you've got a written agreement where it says and down
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  Speaker 4: that you are an independent contractor and that's the relationship
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  Speaker 4: that you can work for other people and have other
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  Speaker 4: agreements that you don't have set hours, or if there
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  Speaker 4: are set hours that you can subcontract out and your
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  Speaker 4: contract not going to be terminated because you don't want
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  Speaker 4: to take on an extra task outside of it. Now,
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  Speaker 4: if a business and a worker can meet all of
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  Speaker 4: those requirements, then that's an independent contractor relationship above and
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  Speaker 4: beyond what's in the current law. So what this does
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  Speaker 4: is it provides a better clarity for everybody. So that's
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  Speaker 4: better for all kiwis when I'm hoping to get this through.
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  Speaker 4: I'm hoping to get this law into parliament next year.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So does the law not do that with the
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  Speaker 2: level of clarity you're happy with? And or is this
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  Speaker 2: tied up with the uber situation? And or will this
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  Speaker 2: new law with its new clarity necessarily mean that people
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  Speaker 2: still don't go to court to try it on.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we know, we know there are a range of
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  Speaker 3: businesses and workers who don't know whether or not they
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  Speaker 3: are employees or contractors or they're not sure, so they're
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  Speaker 3: testing this under the courts because most of this has
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  Speaker 3: been built through case law over time, so it's not
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  Speaker 3: actually clear enough in the law how individual contract arrangements work.
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  Speaker 3: So that's what we're here to provide that clarity for
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  Speaker 3: because at the heart of this we want kiwis and work.
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  Speaker 3: We want businesses to be providing people with opportunity and
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  Speaker 3: we know that when you have a flexible labor market
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  Speaker 3: it has better productivity for everyone. But that's what we're
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  Speaker 3: here to provide for. But we know that even with
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  Speaker 3: current cases, there's been a lot of uncertainty in the
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  Speaker 3: business community and business confidence has been really down under
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  Speaker 3: the last government. So we here to build back business
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  Speaker 3: confidence and get more people into work with certain arrangements.
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  Speaker 2: Good stuff go well, well, it appreciated very much. The
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  Speaker 2: clearer you might get, the better it is. Brooklyn Velde,
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  Speaker 2: Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety. There's a woman unionist
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  Speaker 2: on the news last night who was going, you know,
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  Speaker 2: why don't they wait until the courts? And what's never
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  Speaker 2: I've never understood about particularly unionists like that is do
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  Speaker 2: they not understand the ultimate court in this country is
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  Speaker 2: the government. You can go to court too, your blue
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  Speaker 2: in the face. We're seeing a lot of this with
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  Speaker 2: the Waitangi Tribunal, which is not really a court, it's tribunal.
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  Speaker 2: It's got no teeth. But nevertheless, people just wander off
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  Speaker 2: thinking that they can because they don't like the law
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  Speaker 2: of the day, they'll try and change it. They get
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  Speaker 2: some sort of ruling or judgment from a court, interventionist
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  Speaker 2: courts these days, and that encourages people, of course. And
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  Speaker 2: this Uber case is a classic, and if you haven't
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: followed it, do follow it, because four drivers are telling
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the Uber workforce that what they like
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  Speaker 2: and what they joined isn't good enough and they want
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  Speaker 2: it different. And it looks like at this point anyway,
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  Speaker 2: Uber's going to appeal. I think they're going to appeal,
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  Speaker 2: but it looks like at this point, four drivers beats
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  Speaker 2: out the hundreds of other drivers who took on an
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  Speaker 2: arrangement that they were perfectly happy with because the union's
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  Speaker 2: backed them. Free choice A remember that.
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