when the Government cancelled 33 active claims<\/a> covering more than 150,000 workers in May 2025.<\/p>\n![\"Pay](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pay-equity-march-on-wellingtons-lambton-quay-EWT4B62PMBH7ZKRL6IXWNMKJDU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Pay Equity march on Wellington’s Lambton Quay. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
NZCTU has also called for 90-day trial periods for new employees to be scrapped. Grey said if businesses relied on “disposable” workers, then “we don\u2019t have a very good business model”.<\/p>\n
“I had a nephew who had three trials in a row. Each time they just exited him and didn\u2019t give him any reasons, and he just looked at me and said, \u2018all employers are crap, I never want to work for anyone ever again,\u2019” said Grey.<\/p>\n
Unions and Labour ‘are the same people’ – Luxon<\/p>\n
Responding to Grey, Luxon said: “Labour and the unions are one and the same.<\/p>\n
“Let’s not beat around the bush about it \u2013 they are the same people. They are campaigning against this government. They have been from day one.<\/p>\n
![\"National](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/national-leader-christopher-luxon-KQNSAJJNZ5DD7ES74JZCQCPGWU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
National leader Christopher Luxon. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
“When you see a union movement not come on board or support tax relief for working New Zealanders as we did in our first year, delivered. That just says everything. <\/p>\n
“I mean, if you are advocating for working New Zealanders and you don’t support tax relief for them because you actually want to take the money off their pockets and put it into the government’s pockets to waste the money as Labour did, that just says everything.”<\/p>\n
In late July, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters described trade unions as a \u201cprostitute for the Labour Party\u201d. He accused parts of the union movement of losing political neutrality.<\/p>\n
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The union peak body, which represents more than 370,000 workers, kicked off its election campaign today, firing shots…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11508,1122,111,43,139,69,135,270122],"class_list":["post-598881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-christopher-luxon","tag-employment","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics","tag-vote-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/a-billboard-used-by-the-nzctu-in-its-2023-campaign-YHJTWN7Z6BHBFGWBVFOTLWYRAU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n