The PSA said the NZ First leader was wrong to blame unions for being too slow to convince New Zealand First to block the bill.Lillian Hanly, Political reporter
Two unions have hit back at claims by New Zealand First it could have changed the law removing the right for contractors to challenge their employment status, prompting Winston Peters to accuse them of “burning bridges”.
“How dare Winston Peters claim unions were too slow when they contacted his party last year when there was plenty of time for him to make a difference,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association.
The Employment Relations Amendment Bill passed its third reading earlier this week.
Leader Winston Peters said on Thursday he asked the unions why they didn’t come to his party earlier, and why they spent their time with parties who “couldn’t stop it.”
“We can’t stop it now, because you’ve got to stop it months ago,” said Peters.
In response, the PSA said Peters was wrong to blame unions for being too slow to convince New Zealand First to block what it called the “Fire at Will Bill” when his party knew about their concerns in August 2025.
Fitzsimons said Peters had “all the time in the world” between the PSA’s first meeting with New Zealand First and the passing of the Bill this week.
“It’s as simple as this – the party lacked the guts to stand up to the ACT party despite expressing concerns in speeches about the Bill.”
She said New Zealand First committed in the Second Reading to make changes to the personal grievance provisions, “we held out hope, but nothing happened.”
The PSA outlined their interactions with New Zealand First, meeting with the party’s staff on the 5 August. Fitzsimons said it was a “useful meeting” and she was put in touch with their Employment Relations spokesperson, Mark Patterson.
There were two further meetings with Patterson before the Second Reading.
“He really seemed to give us a fair hearing and asked for possible amendments to take the harsh edges off the proposed legislation.”
Fitzsimons said the PSA then made a “last minute, constructive plea to the party last week delivering a handwritten card to Mr Peters.”
She said “Mr Peters had every chance to walk the talk but turned a blind eye,” and that Peters and New Zealand First had “ignored workers.”
“Workers will never forget this latest betrayal – the PSA will be reminding voters come the election what NZ First really stands for – putting the coalition government’s business mates first, not New Zealand workers.”
Workers First Union also contested Peters’ comments, and said representatives for the union met with NZ First at least eight times since 2024 to discuss the bill.
General secretary Dennis Maga had spoken at NZ First’s convention in October 2024, and discussed the union’s case against Uber where four drivers had argued they should be considered employees.
The union outlined other instances since 2024 where Workers First met with NZ First to raise concerns about the bill and the case against Uber, including with NZ First MP Andy Foster multiple times.
As well as this, Workers First president Bill Bradford and deputy secretary Rudd Hughes met with NZ First MP Mark Patterson in July 2025 to advocate for the party to vote against the bill.
Maga and Grace Liu, Workers First senior solicitor, also met with Patterson in September 2025 to discuss the union’s opposition and specific technical legal issues with the bill. The union pointed to a Facebook post by Patterson about this meeting.
Maga later rang Patterson in February as well and attended another meeting with him later that day.
“Winston is either ignoring his MPs or has forgotten about the many times unions warned the party that the Employment Relations Amendment Bill is a disaster that would set New Zealand workers’ rights back decades,” Maga said.
“Either way, he’s full of hot air as usual and he should apologise for his untrue comments.
“It’s sad but true to say, but Winston Peters and NZ First simply cowered behind the ACT Party during this process and should not be taken seriously as representing any workers’ interests whatsoever.”
Peters took to social media on Saturday morning to respond, saying he’d take the “threats” from Fitzsimons more seriously if the “political motivations weren’t so obvious.”
He acknowledged the party met with the union to discuss the bill, which he pointed out was part of the National-Act coalition agreement and not something NZ First was in charge of, “a fact that Fitzsimons understood and acknowledged multiple times.”
He said the problem for the unions and “their arrogant press releases” was he also had their email with the list of proposed recommendations they wanted, which was sent to NZ First the day before the bill was debated at committee stage in the House.
RNZ has seen the email timestamped the morning of Tuesday 10 February.
“We did in fact did attempt to delay the passage of the bill to ensure more time to discuss their amendments with coalition partners. A fact those unions don’t know because they didn’t ask,” Peters said.
“We had an open door for these unions to constructively discuss this bill – just for them to destroy any good-will and understanding by throwing a tantrum once they knew they didn’t get what they wanted.”
Peters said his party had always been open to talking with unions, but for them to “start burning bridges” in the current political landscape was “unhinged madness”.
