听考研真题|2022年英一阅读4:不正当解雇法,不应包括高薪高管

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

【生词】grievance n.不满, 苦衷, 委屈, 牢骚

【翻译】《2000年新西兰雇佣关系法》（ERA）中关于个人申诉的规定，禁止雇主在缺乏正当理由的情况下解雇员工。

Instead, dismissals must be justified. Employers must both show cause and act in a procedurally fair way.

【生词】dismissal n.解雇，免职

procedurally adv.程序上地

【翻译】相反，解雇行为必须具备正当理由。雇主既须说明解雇事由，又须以符合程序公正的方式实施该行为。

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

【翻译】个人申诉程序旨在保护普通劳动者的就业，防止其遭受“无端解雇”。

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

【生词】premise n.前提

arbitrary adj.武断的，任意的, 专制的

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

【翻译】老板只需向员工发出合同通知，便可了结此事的时代早已一去不复返了。

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

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. 

【生词】attest vt.宣称…为真实的, 证明，证实, 作证,  vi.证实, 证明

handbrake n.手制动器，手闸

【翻译】无数董事会成员及企业主都会证实：限制企业解雇业绩不佳但薪酬较高的管理人员，无异于给提升生产力及整体运营效能设置了一道枷锁。

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

【翻译】C级与A级管理者的差异，很可能正是决定企业成败的关键所在。

Between preserving the jobs of ordinary workers or losing them. Yet mediocrity is no longer enough to justify a dismissal.

【生词】mediocrity n.平庸，平凡, 庸人

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

【生词】paradoxically adv.反论, 荒谬, 自相矛盾

【翻译】因此——尽管看似矛盾——为保护普通劳动者就业而制定的法律，反而可能使这些就业岗位面临风险。

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. 

【翻译】即便未使就业面临风险，但在就业保护法限制企业主解雇绩效不佳的管理者的范围内，这些法律仍会对企业生产率构成制约，进而影响劳动者的工资水平。

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.

【生词】managerial adj.经理的, 管理上的

【翻译】事实上，在《新西兰生产力悖论的国际视角》（2014）一文中，新西兰生产力委员会明确指出，管理能力的不足是该国生产力增长表现不佳的重要原因之一。

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

【翻译】高薪管理人员本身亦不能免于因ERA 不合理的解雇程序而遭受的损害。

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

【翻译】由于就业保护法提高了解雇员工的成本，雇主在招聘新员工时会更加谨慎。

This makes it harder for the marginal manager to gain employment. And firms pay staff less because firms carry the burden of the employment arrangement going wrong.

【生词】marginal adj.边的，边缘的, 旁注的,

Society also suffers from excessive employment protections. Stringent job dismissal regulations adversely affect productivity growth and hamper both prosperity and overall well-being. 

【生词】stringent adj.严格的, 迫切的, （货币）紧缩的

adversely adv.逆地，反对地, 不利地, 有害地

【翻译】社会同样面临着过度就业保护的问题。严苛的解雇法规不仅对生产率增长产生不利影响，还会制约经济繁荣与整体福祉的提升。

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. 

【生词】threshold n.门槛，开始，阈

【翻译】在跨塔斯曼海区域，澳大利亚通过将收入超过特定“高收入门槛”的员工排除在其《不当解雇法》的保护范围之外，以应对“不当解雇悖论”。

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

【翻译】2016年，新西兰一项由议员提出的私人法案试图允许企业及高收入雇员规避不当解雇制度。

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