Herald on 90 day trials

The NZ Herald likes the 90 day trial period for small businesses:

The Government and the trade union movement do not see it that way. Labour Minister Trevor Mallard described it as “almost a charter for people to abuse newly appointed low-wage workers”. Such an interpretation betrays either a misunderstanding or an extremely cynical view of the aims and intentions of most employers. Why would they use it to sack employees without good reason when good staff are hard to find and much time and effort is put into training them?

Read the Hollow Men and Horowitz to understand why Mallard says this.

A more rational take on the proposed law is that it will encourage employers to give people a chance to show they can do a job. Most advantaged by this will be those who employers might otherwise be reluctant to recruit – the likes of new immigrants without good English, former prisoners, those wishing to change careers, young people without qualifications, and those with no recent work experience. National’s proposal would allow employers to take a chance knowing there will not be the prospect of complex and costly personal grievance procedures if there is a genuine problem.

Yep. With the best will in the world you sometimes just can not determine how someone will work out, until they are in the job.

This freedom has long been sought by small businesses. It was pinpointed as the “single most important change needed in employment law” by the Small Business Advisory Group, which was set up by the Government in 2003. The group identified employers’ fear of hiring new workers as a significant obstacle to business growth.

And business growth leads to more jobs, more tax, more wealth for New Zealand.

When National’s member’s bill was before Parliament two years ago, trade unions staged public demonstrations, terming it an intolerable attack on workers’ rights. In fact, New Zealand is the only OECD nation, apart from Denmark, that does not have a legal probationary period in some shape or form. Other countries have recognised the advantages to both parties.

This is hardly some hard right policy. All the leftie social democratic countries in Europe already have this in their law.