Government urged to back Redundancy Protection Bill

Labour’s Associate spokesperson on labour issues Darien Fenton today launched a campaign to boost support for her Bill to give workers fair and decent redundancy protection.

The campaign, called Fair Deal in Hard Times, has the backing of Labour, the Maori Party, the Green Party, unions and community groups and aims to drum up additional support in Parliament to get the Redundancy Protection Bill to the select committee stage.

“The need for a fair and decent system of redundancy protection is becoming increasingly urgent as more people lose their jobs across New Zealand,” Ms Fenton said.

“We’re seeing hundreds of people lose their jobs every week, including many with no or little redundancy pay, and that’s leaving people struggling to pay their mortgages and support their families.

“My redundancy protection bill is designed to offer these Kiwis a reasonable financial buffer to help them keep their families together while they look for new work.

“Redundancy protection legislation is urgently needed and this campaign is about letting the voting public know that this is the Government’s chance to do something positive to help every working New Zealander get through the recession.

“Over the next few weeks we’ll be taking the Fair Deal in Hard Times message out to as many Kiwi workers as we can and will be encouraging them to talk to their local MPs and to the Government about how important this issue is to their lives.

“The Government has talked about the importance of supporting Kiwis through these hard times. I urge it to do the right thing, show it means what it says and back this bill,” Ms Fenton said

The Redundancy Protection Bill is based on the recommendations of the Public Advisory Group on restructuring and redundancy, which advised the government to consider introducing minimum redundancy protections for all workers.