Fire at will bill will be back in Parliament

18 June 2010

Efforts to get rid of the Government's 90 day probation period for new employees are now set to go before Parliament. The Government introduced the employment law more than a year ago against strident opposition from the Labour Party which labelled it "the fire at will bill." The party will now have the chance to repeal the law after a Private Member's Bill, drafted by Labour MP Carmel Sepuloni, was drawn from a ballot in Parliament today. The repeal bill will be debated in the House later this year. The legislation was passed in December 2009 and allows businesses with fewer than 20 workers to sack new employees during the probation period, without the risk of having a personal grievance case taken against them. Trade unions, Labour, the Green Party and the Maori Party opposed the legislation.

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