What Planet is Jordan Carter on?

Jordan Carter has posted a piece on employment relations that defies all logic, except from someone who has only studied employment at University. (like our Prime Minister.)

One of Jordan's Gems is this: "Stronger requirements for management to consult with workers, and include them in business planning and decision-making."

If Jordan doesn't want to return to the days of wildcat strikes and lockouts as a way of resolving worker/employer disputes then he's advocating the best way to have it happen again.

So David Farrer fisks him, and Jordan strikes bag with his comments:

"I don't give a flying wotsit if employers don't like it. The world does not exist for employers."

Okay, Jordan - are you suggesting that we should ban people from employing others? Perhaps the most novel suggestion for ending employment disputes - have no employees.

"Via wilful malevolence or via bureaucratic inflexibility or whatever, employers are not interested in their workers: they are interested in themselves."

Obviously the statement of a University Student now working in a Trade Union environment (or for a Government Minister) who has never held a real job.

But Jordan makes one important point. The key to raising long-term pay in NZ is in raising productivity. If you want to raise productivity you have to link pay to performance/outcomes. (Not necessarily output.) Unions hate pay rates based on this, which is why they're a stumbling block to improving productivity.