A complicated process for workers whose wages had been taken by their employer has deterred workers from seeking justice, says Labour. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
A Labour member's Bill making it a crime for employers to steal workers' wages has passed in Parliament.
The Crimes (Theft by Employer) Amendment Bill went through its third reading on Wednesday night, with support from all the opposition parties.
National and ACT opposed it, but support from New Zealand First meant it passed 63 votes to 60.
The Bill was sponsored by Labour's Camilla Belich, who took it on after it did not progress in the previous Parliamentary term, when it was sponsored by another Labour MP Ibrahim Omer.
Belich said it had previously been a complicated process for workers whose wages had been taken by their employer to make a claim, and the difficult process had deterred workers from seeking justice.
"Theft is theft, and before this Bill was law workers had to take up a civil case. Civil wage claims are difficult for any employee to initiate and often time consuming and expensive. Now workers can go to the Police and report wage theft as a crime.
Speaking for National, Napier MP Katie Nimon argued the bill would clog up the justice system.
"There is already an Employment Relations Act that covers any dispute between an employee and an employer. The process exists, the civil court action exists.
"Making it a criminal offence - obviously, adding penalties, adding criminal repercussions to employers - not only clogs up the justice system, as we have made clear, but also takes down a different path something that has otherwise had a path for resolution between the employer and the employee.
"Not to say that it's a slippery slope, but if we do this for everything that we have currently civil action for, making things criminal, including increasing penalties, what then do we have left in the Employment Relations Act and in the civil courts?"
She said it would further divide the employer and the employee and the relationship that they have in the workplace.
Labour's Phil Twyford later said the debate would be helpful for teaching civics, because it showed National stood for the economic interests of employers at the expense of employees.
"The self-styled party of law and order, is voting against a bill that will criminalise the intentional theft of money by employers," he said.
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