The New Zealand government on May 7 unveiled a new collective bargaining system marking the biggest reform of the country’s employment laws since the early 1990s. The changes have been met with fierce opposition from the business community, who say the process would be compulsory and against international law.
The plan, called the Fair Pay Agreement (FPA), is built upon Australia’s modern award system introduced under former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2009 and aims to raise wages by allowing unions to interact with employers to set minimum wage standards across entire industries.
