Sanjay, the Pizza Hutt worker who delivered John Key’s pizza earlier this week and who, according to Mr Key, thinks John Key’s idea of a 90 day trial period is a good idea, should know that Prime Minister John Key voted against him getting minimum wage last year.
Mr Key obviously doesn’t know that workers like Sanjay have no rights anyway because Pizza Hutt drivers are independent contractors and not covered by basic employment laws, let alone trial periods.
Last year, I tried to persuade the National Party to support my members’ bill (Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill) which would have ensured that so-called “independent contractors” like Sanjay would have received at least the minimum wage.
But guess what, they voted against it and the opportunity was lost.
Much of John Key’s and Kate Wilkinson’s pronouncements about their proposed labour changes this week are based on a view that is sharply skewed by their contact with employers. The Labour Department evaluation of the 90 day trial period interviewed ar0und 3,500 employers and just 13 workers, so one has to question how balanced the evidence is that the PM is basing his decisions on.
John Key tried to make out he was sympathetic to workers like Sanjay this week by telling the story of this pizza delivery guy who came to his mansion in Parnell.
But when he had a chance to really make a difference to Sanjay and other contract workers, his government failed.
Smells a bit off to me!
And not a balanced piece, much like the whinging student about her levies – no counter opinion from a grateful student! 
…workers like Sanjay
Actually I thought people or workers like Sanjay who entered NZ on an immigration points system had no desire to work on minimum wage as they were duped into believing that their skills were in demand in NZ…under which government did he enter NZ again?
Indiana- one would imagine Sanjay came during the nineties (I’m just speculating)- like a lot of migrants who have really good degrees (some doctors) but are forced to work as Taxi drivers. Labour did a lot to tidy up those loop holes- with skilled migrant category- to ensure that migrants are matched to jobs and skills shortage areas. The immigration system was a huge mess in the nineties- and if you ask a lot of taxi drivers when they came to NZ they will tell you 90’s and before that.
Please continue to undermine John Key’s faux ‘ordinary kiwi bloke’ “I too order pizza in” for the kids schtick.
I could not vote for someone with such bad taste for pizzas. Does John actually enjoy Pizza Hut pizzas?
Key has to quote his pizza guy. He has no one else in his world who is blue collar. Unlike the rest of us ‘workers’ aren’t his friends or even neighbors. They’re there to serve him.
To start off with, I prefer Domino’s, but that’s biased because I used to work there. On to the worker-destroying stuff.
Darien I don’t like what this government is doing to workers’ rights one iota. BUT the reason that the government can move so swiftly on this crap is because regretfully the previous Labour government didn’t make strong labour laws. The Employment Relations Act was better than nothing. But that was it – better than nothing.
The next Labour government is going to have to put the foot down: make the unions stronger; make sure that as the employers’ profit goes up, so does the workers profit (if that is possible); improve OSH; bring back four weeks paid leave. These are just a few ideas. Be like FDR or Mickey Savage Labour, not Feminist/LGBT Labour.
Poor Sanjay.
He’s simply become the new “Aroha”.
Check back with him in three years. See what he thinks then.
Lol the “us and them” card Darien really? All we need to do now is crank up fats domino and were back in the 50’s I’d have expected something more “edgy or funky” in line with the rebrand
I imagine the pizzas are cold by the time the PM gets to sit down and eat them – after they have passed through the Diplomatic protection squad checks for hidden devices. Does he really expect us to believe that he has these personable chats with a pizza delivery boy.
@T op Cat – well he couldn’t upset the conservatives with the Hell’s pizza
or dominos (gambling) 
Policy Parrot
..Be like FDR or Mickey Savage Labour, not Feminist/LGBT Labour. ?????
if you really look back , yeah right, the grass wasnt all ways greener.
Martin you will find the main parties ALL embrace diversity now. If you want to stay with the 30s, then the National Front might be more to your liking
Please continue to undermine John Key’s faux ‘ordinary kiwi bloke’ “I too order pizza in” for the kids schtick.
How should a gazillionaire order pizza?
StephenR, interesting point, I hope at least he ordered it in over high speed fibre broadband
@Stephen – obviously the guy’s house is so big that he could just have one on premises
@ghostwhowalksnz I have some sympathy with Martin’s sentiment although not quite so crassly.
Diversity is important but it seems NACT are herding us into the haves & the have nots, the poor and the rich.
SO perhaps the class analysis should reemerge because your correct, it doesn’t matter what your creed, colour or preference they are out to shaft us all.
StephenR, interesting point, I hope at least he ordered it in over high speed fibre broadband
I would send a thoroughbred Malaysian racing pigeon released via a B-52 on standby in the bunker underneath Rangitoto island.
Malaysian racing pigeons, yeah! They have those???! I wondered where the Skyhawk money went lolz
Richie: most interesting is when, on occasion, they turn the knives against one of their own, empty the victim’s pockets while the corpse is still warm and divide the spoils between the remaining perps.
“I would send a thoroughbred Malaysian racing pigeon released via a B-52 on standby in the bunker underneath Rangitoto island.”
Or maybe a Hummer with spiked bull-bars and a Blaster flamethrower.
@Richie: if we ever get a 1981: The Sequel, that would be the catalyst.
one thing that should have been understood a long time ago was that, if ron(key) says black,the reality is white to pale grey. he has been dissembling and telling lies from the time he realised how much money he could gather to himself in doing so. why are we still acting shocked when he simply continues what has been a very successful strategy.
allowing empathy to intrude on this mindset would be regarded as a debilitating weakness, and therefore create undesirable outcomes for the people who have invested large amounts of money in order to be first in line when the asset stripping gets underway
@ghostwalkers. I wasn’t saying scrap diversity, I was just saying that Labour needs to position itself more economically next time.
Women and gays have their rights now, so where’s the problem? And why should I join the National Front just because I’m not as sympathetic towards feminism/gayism as others? Ghostwalker get your facts right. The National Front is fascist, and I’m not. The fact that you use the National Front at me like a metaphor is offensive.
Mainstream is the new minority.
I read somewhere that the pizza guy is an independent contractor. If so, surely ‘fire at will’ does not apply to him? If so, the indolent, craven MSM have fallen for it yet again.
Considering the choice of eateries in Parnell, including excellent, authentic pizza places, I too wonder why John Key would stoop to eating Pizza Hutt fare. Is he too important now that he can’t get in his own car and drive out for pizza? Talk about an ordinary guy turned into an ultra celebrity, rather than just the PM. (though I s’pose with zillions in the bank, that makes him special?)…not.! It just makes him a rich dude with too much power.
…should know that Prime Minister John Key voted against him getting minimum wage last year.
Darien are you more incensed that Sanjay still supports John Key even though he is a pigeon hole fit for the Labour party support? Or are you really fuming at National’s policy direction? I doubt very much that the “Sanjay’s” of the world came here to target the lowest paid roles that NZ had to offer. Whilst Labour is very keen to raise wages, as wages rise will they also retract back on WFF or continue to add to that too? You will have to be honest here and acknowledge that even people on the lowest wage still have access to a supportive welfare system.
Rosa : “Is he too important now that he can’t get in his own car and drive out for pizza?”
For goodness sake, Rosa. This is a joke, right?
There are lots of people who, after a hard week, phone out for pizza for their kids and themselves as a family treat. Do they all feel too important to go and get it for themselves?
I don’t care how much money I’ve got – if I become a millionaire I’ll still love fishfinger sandwiches on commodity white bread with loads of vinegar. (So long as my wife isn’t around!) Perhaps JK feels the same about Pizza Hut? Or his kids do?
Oops! Can someone edit the above post and put in the missing ?
Oops again. That should have been the missing …
…the missing [end of italics mark]…
Whatever.
An edit function – the impossible dream, along with open mic threads, sigh,
I thought JK was at the National Party Conference on Saturday and Saturday night
indiana, are we sure Sanjay voted for John Key?
I’m beginning to wonder though, didn’t he also have Bill and Mary as examples of real people for something recently?
Women and Gay people have rights, that is not the same as treated equally, just for the record…
LOL George @ mainstream the new minority. Mainstream has always been the minority, it’s just in recent decades they have begun to be treated like they used to treat other minorities
Tracey :“Mainstream has always been the minority, it’s just in recent decades they have begun to be treated like they used to treat other minorities”
Interesting point.
As JFK said – “we are all jews and Germans”.
Yeah but he was white Irish Catholic…
Word on the street around Parnell is that the pizza went to the DPS guys and Key had no clue.
Presumably they had to eat it to make sure it hadn’t been contaminated…
Sorry for some of my questions, have found the sanjay interview and read it…
In recessions employers, quite rightly take fewer hiring risks, and do not look to employ more, just save the jobs of those they already employ.
Tracey, don’t know if he voted for National…but the support referred to by Darien may be found here…
http://www.3news.co.nz/Pizza-delivery-guy-likes-the-taste-of-Keys-90-day-policy/tabid/370/articleID/166515/Default.aspx
…and here
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/pizza-man-supports-key-s-plans-3656786
I read somewhere that the pizza guy is an independent contractor. If so, surely ‘fire at will’ does not apply to him? If so, the indolent, craven MSM have fallen for it yet again.
Sigh. Sanjay has a Master’s in zoology and a business diploma, yet no one will hire him, hence the pizza delivery job. If employers were more willing to take risks, maybe he could get a decent job.
Though for all I know he may be unemployable for other reasons, but I suppose the principle stands.
Well, make that a *better* job. Nothing inherently wrong with delivering pizzas, but he in particular could do better obviously.
I’m wondering if many vacancies come up in Zoology in NZ?
I know from past experience (going back well over a decade) that Immigration attached points or importance to a degree, more points fo rMaster sand so on. It was irrelevant WHAT it was in, provided it was a recognised University and degree. People thought this meant there would be a job in their field, no idea why they thought that, but they did. Even Kiwis with degrees in Zoology arent guaranteed a job in it.
Rules aside, human beings favour those who are like them. I’m not making a judgment on that, just an observation of human nature. We trust what we kow and distrust what we don’t, and that includes people of different nations, cultures, languages etc…
Good points in your 2:09 post Tracey – like Principessa said, immigration rules change every now and then. Zoology jobs – the dairy industry?? Just for fun you can fill out an evaluation form on an ‘immigrate to NZ’ website somewhere which shows you your total ‘points’.
@Tracey: Interestingly enough, Mark Berghan, a translations service owner, believes the burden of proof is on migrants.
On the other hand, Michael Barnett is a key player in the NewKiwis scheme.
@ StephenR, surely you Tories should be arguing that a guy with a business degree should be getting off the couch and setting up his own business? Or does that line only run when it benefits a tory prejudice?
StephenR, surely you Tories should be arguing that a guy with a business degree should be getting off the couch and setting up his own business? Or does that line only run when it benefits a tory prejudice?
Woohoo pointless labels! One should do what one’s good at/qualified for IMHO. Not sure why he got the business diploma – might only be to upskill enough to fit into an existing business. Also you’ll notice that he got off the couch a while ago, that’s why he’s delivering pizzas!
The most speculated upon pizza delivery guy in the country, get this guy on 60 Minutes!
Joe the Plumber ring a bell?
I can see this guy getting pulled into the lime light.
Sanjay the Pizza Guy paraded around like some mojo charm in the run up to the next election.
Surprise: on the eve of the general election an unknown Auckland business “Tower Gate” has given him a high paid job. All thanks to the 90 trial period, gee may be we were wrong.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/downloads/tube_map.html
@ StephenR, delivering pizzas in his choice, according to the Tory mantra. He could make other choices, but chooses to deliver pizzas. Like all the lazy good for nothings on the sickness benefit, right? They choose to be there, right? Or the lazy solo mums, who choose to have kids to be there, right? You Tories really are a piece of work.
Yes of course Sanjay and other migrants like him want a chance at a better job, but the evaluation on the 90 day trial period released by the Department of Labour at the National Party Conference last week showed that only 2% of workers given jobs under the 90 day bill were “Asians” – 72% were “European” so as for giving someone like him an opportunity – I would say big fail. My point is that he’s working in a job where he doesn’t even qualify for minimum wage and John Key is too out of touch to understand that.
You Tories really are a piece of work.
It’s like you don’t even know me at all! Really not sure what you’re getting at now.
@Darien, thanks, 2% more than would otherwise have been employed?
Stuffed if I know.
The DOL study also showed that a lot of employers didn’t understand the 90-day thing either (51% getting their info from mass media!!!), which surely affects its usage overall. Something to aim for.