Source: PSA
Date: 3:09PM 09/03/2026
Employers trying to insert 90-day “fire at will” clauses into new collective agreements will face protests outside their workplaces, the PSA says.
“We need to resist 90-day trials whenever employers attempt to use them. We will hold rallies and keep opposing them.
“Employers are on notice about the damage 90-day trials cause to individuals and we will not hesitate to name and shame them if they go ahead anyway,” Fitzsimons said.
“This Government has made it easier to employ people on insecure employment but it is still wrong, oppressive and immoral to do so.
“The message employers could not be clearer: you don’t need trial periods, treat people fairly from day one, show respect for working people. Good employers don’t need to hide behind 90-day trials. More humane, dignified and fair employment rights are good for workers, good for business and actually good for New Zealand too.
Fitzsimons was speaking today at a rally in Dunedin outside the office of mental health and addiction support provider Able Minds, where staff represented by the PSA are pushing back on their employer’s insistence at introducing 90-day trials.
The rally heard from Jacqueline Atkinson who worked in a previous career as a baker on a 90-day trial and was suddenly dismissed from a local bakery just after Easter when the seasonal demand ended.
Jacqueline talked about balling her eyes out in her car after it happened.
“I remember going home quite devastated and thinking how could my boss say I was not good enough? I had told him I was going there to learn.
“I was freaking out about how I was going to pay the mortgage on my first house that I had bought with my partner if I didn’t find another job.
“It was an awful experience. Nobody should be subject to that. You should absolutely have the right to work in a job where you are treated fairly. You should have the right to a job where there are opportunities to grow and excel,” Atkinson said.
The rally also heard a stirring speech from Taieri MP Ingrid Leary about this Government’s appalling record on employment rights and from three Greens MPs – Dunedin-based MP Francisco Hernandez, Workplace Relations and Safety Spokesperson Teanau Tuiono and Green MP Mike Davidson.
The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.
