challenged

Letters

Futa challenged

Madam, The assertion by Futa Helu in your April 1993 issue that the New Zealand Employment Contracts Act has demol ished trade unionism and the right of association in collective bargaining can not go unchallenged.

The Act specifically gives workers the freedom to choose whether or not to belong to any employees organisation.

Membership of a trade union or any

employees organisation is now totally

voluntary. Freedom of association is

specifically protected by the legislation

and it is an offence to exert undue influence on employees either to become a member of an employee organisation or cease to be a member of one.

For some unstated reason Helu also considers the Employment Contracts Act erodes media freedom. I don’t under stand the basis for this assertion. The Employment Contracts Act regulates the law of employment. It has nothing to do with media freedom or censorship.

New Zealand cherish freedom of expression and the nation has an envi able legal history of freedom of ex

pression and equal rights. The suggestion

that New Zealand is setting a bad example for the Pacific Islands simply doesn’t accord with the reality.

P T Kiely

Solicitor Auckland

New Zealand