2022 Text 4（英语一）雇主可以随意解雇员工吗

The personal grievance provisions of New Zealand's Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA) prevent an employer from firing an employee without good cause.

新西兰《2000 年就业关系法》的个人申诉条款禁止雇主在没有正当理由的情况下解雇员工。

Instead, dismissals must be justified.

相反，解雇必须有正当理由。

Employers must both show cause and act in a procedurally fair way.

雇主必须表明原因，并以程序公平的方式行事。

Personal grievance procedures were designed to guard the jobs of ordinary workers from "unjustified dismissals."

个人申诉程序旨在保护普通工人的职位免遭“不合理解雇”。

The premise was that the common law of contract lacked sufficient safeguards for workers against arbitrary conduct by management.

其前提是，普通合同法缺乏对工人的充分保障，使其免受管理层的任意行为影响。

Long gone are the days when a boss could simply give an employee contractual notice.

老板可以简单地给雇员发出合同通知的日子已经一去不复返了。

But these provisions create difficulties for businesses when applied to highly paid managers and executives.

但这些规定在适用于高薪经理和高管时给企业带来了困难。

As countless boards and business owners will attest, constraining firms from firing poorly performing, high-earning managers is a handbrake on boosting productivity and overall performance.

正如无数的董事会和企业主所证明的那样，限制企业解雇业绩不佳、收入较高的经理人是提高生产力和整体业绩的一个手刹。

The difference between C-grade and A-grade managers may very well be the difference between business success or failure.

C 级和 A 级管理人员之间的差异很可能是企业成功或失败的区别。

Between preserving the jobs of ordinary workers or losing them.

在保住普通工人的工作或失去工作之间。

Yet mediocrity is no longer enough to justify a dismissal.

然而，平庸不再足以成为解雇的理由。

Consequently — and paradoxically — laws introduced to protect the jobs of ordinary workers may be placing those jobs at risk.

因此，自相矛盾的是，为保护普通工人的工作而出台的法律可能会使这些工作面临风险。

If not placing jobs at risk, to the extent employment protection laws constrain business owners from dismissing under-performing managers, those laws act as a constraint on firm productivity and therefore on workers' wages.

如果就业保护法没有将工作置于危险之中，就限制企业主解雇表现不佳的经理而言，这些法律会限制公司的生产力，从而也限制了工人的工资。

Indeed, in "An International Perspective on New Zealand's Productivity Paradox" (2014) , the Productivity Commission singled out the low quality of managerial capabilities as a cause of the country's poor productivity growth record.

事实上，在《新西兰生产力悖论的国际视角》（2014 年）中，生产力委员会特别指出，管理能力质量低下是导致该国生产力增长记录不佳的原因之一。

Nor are highly paid managers themselves immune from the harm caused by the ERA's unjustified dismissal procedures.

高薪经理本身也不能免受 ERA 不合理解雇程序造成的伤害。

Because employment protection laws make it costlier to fire an employee, employers are more cautious about hiring new staff.

因为就业保护法使得解雇员工的成本更高，雇主对雇佣新员工更加谨慎。

This makes it harder for the marginal manager to gain employment.

这使得边缘经理更难找到工作。

And firms pay staff less because firms carry the burden of the employment arrangement going wrong.

而公司支付给员工的工资较少，因为公司承担着就业安排出错的负担。

Society also suffers from excessive employment protections.

社会也受到过度就业保护的影响。

Stringent job dismissal regulations adversely affect productivity growth and hamper both prosperity and overall well-being.

严格的解雇规定对生产率增长产生不利影响，并阻碍了繁荣和整体福祉。

Across the Tasman Sea, Australia deals with the unjustified dismissal paradox by excluding employees earning above a specified "high-income threshold" from the protection of its unfair dismissal laws.

在塔斯曼海的另一边，澳大利亚通过将收入超过特定“高收入门槛”的员工排除在不公平解雇法的保护之外，来解决不合理解雇悖论。

In New Zealand, a 2016 private members' Bill tried to permit firms and high-income employees to contract out of the unjustified dismissal regime.

在新西兰，2016 年的一项私人成员法案试图允许公司和高收入雇员摆脱不合理的解雇制度。

However, the mechanisms proposed were unwieldy and the Bill was voted down following the change in government later that year.

然而，所提出的机制并不健全，在当年晚些时候政府换届后，该法案被否决。

36. The personal grievance provisions of the ERA are intended to

36. ERA 的个人申诉条款旨在

[A] punish dubious corporate practices.

惩罚可疑的公司行为。

[B] improve traditional hiring procedures.

改进传统的招聘程序。

[C] exempt employers from certain duties.

免除雇主的某些义务。

[D] protect the rights of ordinary workers.

保护普通工人的权利。

37. It can be learned from paragraph 3 that the provisions may

37. 从文中第 3 段可以了解到，这些条款可能会

[A] hinder business development.

妨碍业务发展。

[B] undermine managers' authority.

削弱管理者的权威。

[C] affect the public image of the firms.

影响公司的公众形象。

[D] worsen labor-management relations.

使劳资关系恶化。

38. Which of the following measures would the Productivity Commission support?

38. 生产力委员会会支持下列哪项措施？

[A] Imposing reasonable wage restraints.

实施合理的工资限制。

[B] Enforcing employment protection laws.

执行就业保护法。

[C] Limiting the powers of business owners.

限制企业主的权力。

[D] Dismissing poorly performing managers.

解雇表现不佳的经理。

39. What might be an effect of ERA's unjustified dismissal procedures?

39. ERA 不合理的解雇程序可能会产生什么影响？

[A] Highly paid managers lose their jobs.

高薪经理失去工作。

[B] Employees suffer from salary cuts.

员工遭受减薪之苦。

[C] Society sees a rise in overall well-being.

社会总体福祉提高。

[D] Employers need to hire new staff.

雇主需雇用新员工。

40. It can be inferred that the "high-income threshold" in Australia

40. 从本文可以推断，澳大利亚的“高收入门槛”

[A] has secured managers' earnings.

确保了经理的收益。

[B] has produced undesired results.

产生了事与愿违的结果。

[C] is beneficial to business owners.

对企业主有利。

[D] is difficult to put into practice.