Over on Kiwiblog, National Party poodle David Farrar is desperately spinning the proposed 90 day trial period law as being no different to what other countries are doing. He has published a list of 35 countries that supposedly have trial period laws.
The list includes a number of European countries, but it also includes Pakistan, Thailand, the UAE, Moldova, and Armenia.
In Pakistan they still stone people to death for adultery. In the UAE homosexuality is a crime and Sharia law is practised, while foreign workers from Asia are often treated little better than slaves. Armenia is only rated "partly free" by international organisations, and police brutality and attacks on journalists are commonplace. The Amnesty International 2009 Report on Moldova is damning. Its report on Thailand is little better.
Should we really be following their examples?
I took a look at the laws of a few other countries cited by Farrar.
In France, labour laws give employers the right to "fire at will" for the first two years. But it's not quite as simple as that. The law only applies to companies with 20 or fewer employees, and employers have to give notice of dismissal. The employee can also terminate without giving any notice at all. But the law has been subject to a number of challenges and employers who fire without giving an adequate reason risk legal action.
In the UK employees who have worked for less than a year have no rights to claim unfair dismissal, but they are still entitled to notice of dismissal. The cannot generally just be fired on the spot, absent misconduct.
I could find no evidence on the ILO site that Germany has fire at will legislation. But then I'm not an expert on German employment law. Maybe I missed something.
If I had time and didn't need to sleep, I'd research the relevant laws of the US and Australia. I'm not sure how comparable they are to what National is proposing.
But this small selection shows just how pointless comparisons are. No doubt Farrar was aware of that, but couldn't help himself. Why would anyone trust a thing the man writes?
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
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You are still doing us all a public service. You read Kiwiblog so we don't have to!
ReplyDeleteThe secret to reading Kiwiblog is not to go near the comments. If you can manage that and not be tempted, it's not so bad, even if much of what DPF writes is simply National Party spin.
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