Investing in People for Growth

Opinion piece by CTU president Ross Wilson published in DominionPost Business Forum January 1, 2003.

Labour Minister Margaret Wilson described the new workplace safety laws as a "Christmas present" for New Zealand families.

If the new legal framework reduces our appalling workplace death toll (a record 73 for the last year) that alone will be sufficient justification for the new Act.

But it also provides a huge potential benefit for business. We already know that the monetary cost to our economy of not preventing accidents and disease is conservatively estimated to be $4.5 billion per year.

It is therefore disappointing that some business organisations have opposed the new laws because they "increase compliance costs".

This not only ignores the reality that New Zealand has the 3rd lowest business compliance costs in the OECD. It also ignores the huge cost of not improving health and safety.

I hope the new year will bring a more positive approach from business leaders.

Of course costs are important. But it is precisely because employers in the 1990s focussed so much on costs that they failed to invest in skill development and strategies to move to a higher skill, higher value economy.

During the last three years there has been a constant stream of complaint from business spokespeople about the compliance costs of the changes to employment law, ACC, paid parental leave, the minimum wage, and now health and safety laws.

Yet we have strong economic and employment growth and a considerable lift in business profits.

So lets try being positive as a new business growth strategy.

Lets focus on people as an asset, and expenditure on their educational, skill and social development as an important investment in our future.

Lets draw on the successful experience of the countries and companies of the world which have focus on increasing revenue through innovative strategies built on human capital. Innovation, design and investment are fundamental to creating jobs.

The OECD in numerous policy has noted that the relationship between skill development, investment in technology, and workplace organisation is vital to improving productivity.

And key to the whole issue of workplace organisation is the connection between workplace relationships and productivity. As unions we are focussing on the three limbs of productivity - technology/innovation, skill development and workplace organisation. Productivity lifts in NZ will flow from maximising the potential of each of these limbs and in particular focussing on where they all come together - be it at the level of the workplace, enterprise or industry.