Department of Labour

Independent Wellington retailer Unity Books has helped to trial a proposed new chapter in creating a more flexible workplace, with initiatives including job sharing and working from home.  Two Labour Department workplace toolkits were launched yesterday, which provide advice on issues such as job sharing, holidays, leave and roster management.

Unity bookstore co-owner and manager Tilly Lloyd hit upon a staffing solution to a business downturn.  Ms Lloyd said that, when the Willis St store's rent was increased about the same time that global book chain Borders opened up in competition in Wellington, she was forced to reduce one staff member's hours.

The only difficulty the staff member had, was that the revised hours clashed with band practice.  "So I said, `Why don't you have your practice here?"'  She offered a storeroom for the band rehearsals each week.  Another staff member was able to bring her preschool-aged daughter into work at weekends and arrive a little later if she was leaving her at a creche during the week.  "It seems important to me that the harmony and happiness of staff is really vital," Ms Lloyd said.

Labour Minister Ruth Dyson and Small Business Minister Lianne Dalziel launched the Labour Department initiative at the bookstore yesterday.  Ms Dyson said that in a tight labour market with low unemployment, employers were faced with staff recruitment and retention problems.  She doubted any "purely hypothetical" change of government would be able to overturn a business approach that research had shown was now expected in the workplace.  The Labour Department surveyed a range of New Zealand businesses and organisations for 18 months to determine how they made job flexibility work for them.  "It's clear that employees support flexible work," Ms Dyson said.

Easter trading laws could face a revamp next month with Parliament set to hear two private members bills aimed at liberalising shop trading.

It follows a series of inspections by Department of Labour staff over the weekend which found nearly 90 per cent of stores visited had chosen to defy the law.

Bills from two MPs, National's Jacqui Dean and Labour's Steve Chadwick, could change those laws when their bills come up for consideration in the House when it reconvenes in early May.

Ms Dean's bill aims to allow most shops to open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, while Ms Chadwick's would allow trading on Easter Sunday if local authorities decide they can.

The bills face strong opposition from unions, which have joined forces with church groups such as the Catholic Bishops Conference and the Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church to lobby against them.

Labour Minister Ruth Dyson said yesterday that any moves to increase the fines for shops defying the present law would have to wait until those bills were heard in Parliament.

Department of Labour staff visited 55 retailers on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, finding 47 choosing to open.  But deputy secretary for workplace, Andrew Annakin, was pleased with the level of compliance.  "We're pleased to see that, in general, the message got through and retailers made the right decision about whether to open or not. It was also good to see that a number of retailers who opened last year decided not to open this year."

Last year, more than 70 retailers were fined for opening on Good Friday or Easter Sunday.  Yesterday department staff went to 24 retailers around the country, finding only two closed. Around half were hardware stores.

Among those open was chainstore Bunnings Warehouse, which drew the ire of the National Distribution Union.  National secretary Laila Harre said the business was taking workers away from their families for commercial gain. 

"There are only 3 days a year when our 200,000 retail workers are guaranteed time with their families.  "If one of our retail workers decided to take a day off with their family on a normal trading day, Bunnings or any other company would bring the whole force of the law to discipline and even fire the worker. But here we have a corporate citizen quite blatantly breaking the law and facing a paltry $1000 fine per breach."

Bunnings general manager Brad Cranston said it was a "union beat-up". "The union held a very intense recruitment drive in our stores in late February, and I guess they got a disappointing result, so they're reacting to that."

He said the stores were open because they had garden centres, which are exempt.  But the Department of Labour said hardware stores such as Bunnings were not exempt.  "Retailers of this type have been warned that unless they are predominantly selling gardening goods, or they section off the rest of the store, they are not exempt."