Dom Post on Labour’s 1970 workplaces policy

A second editorial pouring scorn:

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

If living standards were determined by government decree, Labour’s new industrial relations policy would be a breakthrough contribution to an age-old debate.

Sadly for the low-paid workers Phil Goff’s party is trying to woo, wishful thinking has nothing to do with living standards.

The consequence of hiking the minimum wage from $13 to $15 an hour, as Labour is proposing to do, will be to deny more unskilled young job seekers the opportunity to get a foot on the job ladder. The consequence of telling international film producers it is our way or the highway will be for them to pack their bags. And the consequence of requiring all employers in an industry to offer the same minimum set of terms and conditions will be to ship more jobs off overseas.

It is arguably the great job destruction policy we have ever seen.

The only winners from Labour’s work and wages policy, unveiled on Tuesday, will be unions, which can expect a temporary increase in members and influence.

These are the same union that not only fund the Labour Party, but actually are members of it, and have significant voting rights with it?

Circumstances vary from workplace to workplace. To succeed in the global market, businesses have to be flexible. Rewards should be shared fairly, but the way that is done should be a matter for shareholders, managers and employees to work out, not bureaucrats in the new Workplace Commission that Labour proposes to create.

Oh it won’t be bureaucrats on the Workplace Commission. It will be full of former or future Labour MPs.