The New Zealand union movement is celebrating after Jacinda Ardern's government landed one of its major reforms, legislating for an Australia-style industry-wide bargaining system.
On Wednesday, the Fair Pay Agreements Bill passed its third reading in parliament - supported by Labour, the Greens and the Maori Party - in the biggest IR shakeup for three decades.
The reform will provide a return for sector-wide agreements, now known as fair pay agreements (FPAs), which are not dissimilar to Australia's modern awards.
The shift has been long coveted by unions, which were gutted in 1991 by the deregulating Employment Contracts Act.
Council of Trade Unions chief economist Craig Renney said the new regime would lift productivity.
"We recognise that Australia was doing really well in comparison to New Zealand and its productivity over the past 30 years has borne out that it's Modern Award system is delivering better outcomes than the very individualised contracting that we have in New Zealand," he told AAP.
Acting Prime Minister Grant Robertson, a long-held believer in the reform, called the bill's passage a "great day for New Zealand".
Mr Robertson gave an emotional speech in parliament on Wednesday, as he recalled working in a Dunedin supermarket at the time of the 1991 reforms.
"I worked alongside some of the hardest workers I have ever known ... at the checkouts and the butchery," he said.
"I watched their wages, of those people who worked hard every day to feed their families, erode.
"Today we turn that around. We make sure working people can finally get that fair day's pay."
After the bill's passage, members of the public gallery burst into waiata, or song.
"There will be a party tonight. This has been 15, 20 years in the making," Renney said.
Under the new regime, if a proportion of a particular industry support the introduction of an FPA, it will trigger a process to bring unions and employer representative together to negotiate it.
"The key difference between a fair pay agreement and the Modern Award system in Australia that the Modern Award system is set by the Fair Work Commission. They're the arbiters," Mr Renney said.
In New Zealand, the Employment Relations Authority will only intervene to set pay and conditions when unions and employers are unable to agree twice.
First promised by Labour prior to taking office in 2017, the reforms languished during the government's first term while in coalition.
Ms Ardern's government has now made good on the election commitment, making use of its majority from the 2020 election.
The opposition National party has promised to repeal the reforms, with leader Chris Luxon describing the bill as a "great leap back to 1970".
"What we're seeing is a loss of flexibility and agility in our workplace relations and that's been one of the hallmarks of New Zealand's workforce over the last few years," he said.
Mr Renney said he expected the impact to low-paid workers to be so strong, opposition parties wouldn't be able to follow through.
"We've heard this talk before," he said, "It'd be very hard to undo and unpick all of that work."
"Actually, (agreements) improve not only workers outcomes, but company profits, profitability and productivity."
