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Living Wage – now part of the debate

Posted by Darien Fenton on May 23rd, 2012

lwlogoThe Living Wage campaign launched in Auckland today was attended by around 200 workers, community groups and faith based organisations.  Around 60 organisations so far have signed up to this pledge :

A living wage is the income necessary to provide workers and their families with the basic necessities of life. A living wage will enable workers to live with dignity and to participate as active citizens in society.  We call upon the Government, employers and society as a whole, to strive for a living wage for all households as a necessary and important step in the reduction of poverty in New Zealand.

Many more will join this campaign over the coming months and you will hear more about it.  It will help create a new discourse in New Zealand about poverty and inequality and how low wages are affecting our families and society.  It will contribute to the debate that is growing around austerity economics vs growth, not only in New Zealand, but in many other countries.

But it’s not only a discussion for workers, unions and communities.  It’s a political issue that needs to be part of the budget debate over the next few weeks.

We need to discover a better New Zealand, where, as one of the speakers said today, the economy is made for the people, not people made for the economy.

If you want to know more, listen to Red Alert Radio tomorrow at 9.05am where I talk to Annie Newman, Campaign Co-ordinator about the Living Wage Campaign.

Filed under: Work and Wages
9 Comments

Dog Eat Dog

Posted by Darien Fenton on May 20th, 2012

Last week’s ACTU congress had a focus on insecure work, with their independent report (Lives on Hold, Unlocking the Potential of Australia’s Workforce) taking centre stage. It’s a thoughtful and well researched contribution to the increasing use of non standard work, and the alienation of so many workers from that basic value we share with Australia : a fair days pay for a fair days work.

There’s so much in this report that would ring bells in New Zealand. Here’s what Kathy says :

“I have had 40 jobs with 20 different agencies/ labour hire over the past year. They tell me it could lead to permanent employment but it never does. We are always let go and sent somewhere else at the end of our three-month trial. We are made to feel disposable and some places I am sent to the managers and employees say ‘Oh you’re just a casual’. This might be true but I still need to eat! I am always negotiating with the bank around my mortgage because I can’t lock in secure work.”

It’s a discussion we should be having in New Zealand, but instead the NZ government is about to embark on a wholesale attack on the very heart of our employment relations system. Rather than attacking basic rights, wouldn’t it be great to be debating and implementing creative, progressive reforms?  Wouldn’t it be great to have an inclusive society that provides sustainable and decent work for all, that strikes a balance between maintaining economic competitiveness and security for NZ working people?

Sure, the Aussies have their problems, but they are looking ahead. They’re talking about it.

In New Zealand, the government is nurturing a dog eat dog attitude.

It’s your fault if you aren’t on top and for goodness sake, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

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Filed under: Contractors, Work and Wages, non standard work, workforce
22 Comments

Budget prediction

Posted by Darien Fenton on May 16th, 2012

051412krugman3-blog480Thanks Paul Krugman (blog) and Josie Pagani (Radio NZ today)

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Filed under: Budget, economic
8 Comments

Let it be known everywhere

Posted by Darien Fenton on May 15th, 2012

Last week, a couple of papers fell off the back of a truck which were of particular interest to Kiwi workers. They outlined the government’s changes to labour laws and gave the Department of Labour’s assessment and warnings about the consequences of the government’s changes.

I thought the Minister of Labour would get the hint that Labour knew more than she was telling when I asked her a question in the House last Wednesday. Then in my speech on Tau Henare’s strike ballot bill I outlined the stupidity of her government’s proposals in regard to pay reductions for partial strikes – and she was in the House listening.

So I was gobsmacked that when the papers were revealed in the Dompost, Kate Wilkinson suggested that I had made them up. Later that day, the government was forced to come clean and made the announcements I knew were coming.

The changes will systematically take apart our labour relations framework, part by part and clause by clause. Our employment law will still be called the Employment Relations Act, but the worst provisions of that most draconian of employment laws from the 1990’s, the Employment Contracts Act will replace much of it. They will do nothing to address the most volatile industrial relations environment we’ve seen in NZ in years, and will definitely do nothing to increase wages and provide decent work.

The government is couching their plans in the Crosby Textor language of “choice, balance, flexibility” and are described as “minor” by the PM John Key.

That’s rubbish. We’ve got a wages crisis in New Zealand and that’s because our employment relations system isn’t working to ensure fairness for working people. The government’s changes will make this worse.

Last week, when we were debating Tau Henare’s secret ballots for strikes bill (which has now passed and will soon become law), National Party MPs indulged themselves in an outburst of the “free at last” quote from Martin Luther King.

Well, that great man died in Memphis when he was attending a struggle for the right of public workers to have a union and to collectively bargain.

King declared : “Let it be known everywhere, that along with wages and all of the other securities that you are struggling for, you are also struggling for the right to organise and be recognised.” The key issues for the Memphis strikers were their demands that the City of Memphis grant collective bargaining rights and the collection of union fees.

I’m taking bets on how many National MPs stand up and quote Martin Luther King on collective bargaining and workers rights when these miserable changes come to the Parliament.

And let it be known everywhere : Labour will oppose these changes vigorously and determinedly.

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Filed under: Uncategorized, Work and Wages, workers rights, workforce
16 Comments

Labour law under attack

Posted by Darien Fenton on May 15th, 2012

There’s been some big announcements this week about labour law changes.

I’m on the road at present but as soon as I get to a computer I will have a lot to say.

Filed under: Uncategorized
11 Comments

Free at last?

Posted by Darien Fenton on May 11th, 2012

This week, National MPs indulged themselves with a bit of union bashing during their support for Tau Henare’s Employment Relations (Secret Relations Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bil.

The worst comments were from Tau Henare and other National MPs, who insisted on quoting Martin Luther King saying “Free at Last, Thank God Almighty we are Free at Last.”

How embarrassing to compare a petty little bill, that has nothing to do with freedom, freedom of choice, or more importantly, freedom of association with that great defender of civil rights and equality, Martin Luther King.

Tau Henare and his other acolytes, including Jami-Lee Ross, made speeches that would have made Bill Birch of the 1990s National Party proud.

The prejudice is awful. The consequences for New Zealand workers are dire when you add everything up.

This week, I found out a whole lot more about the government’s intention to roll back worker rights and collective bargaining. (I’ll have more to say on this).

The Minister of Labour, Kate Wilkinson, is due to make her annual junket to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva in June. So far, she’s been able to bask in some of the glory from the former Labour government and New Zealand’s place as a respected member of the ILO.  We had moved on from the shame in the 1990s when a special Rappateur was sent to New Zealand to investigate NZ’s breaches of core labour standards.  New Zealand were pariahs in the international labour community then, aligned with third world countries who think workers should be grateful to have jobs. We might be joining them again soon.

I am  wondering how the Minister of Labour will justify Tau Henare’s bill, which on its own, is irrelevant in the scale of issues facing New Zealand workers, but in the bigger picture, will require an explanation of how her government’s changes to collective bargaining and strikes will help advance the rights of New Zealand working people and our place in the world.

Think about this : if the influence of unions is removed altogether in NZ, what will happen to wages, to standards, to fairness?

Would we still have a minimum wage?  Would we have ever moved to four weeks annual leave?

Would there even be a discussion about health and safety?

Or are you willing to leave it up to the Tau Henares and Jami-lee Ross’s of the world?

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Filed under: Right to strike, union, value of work, workers rights
21 Comments

A few sad words on Workers Memorial Day

Posted by Darien Fenton on April 28th, 2012

It’s six months since Charanpereet Singh Dhaliwai, aged just 21 died from head injuries after a horrific assault on the job.

He was on his first night working as a security guard watching over the Fulton Hogan site in West Auckland, and he was working alone.

He’s just one on a shameful list of workplace deaths and injuries as we mourn our workplace toll on Workers Memorial Day today.

Every year, I hope things will be better and we will see a different approach to protecting workers who go to work, expecting to return home safely to their families at the end of the day.

So what’s the government’s plan?

MOBIE – that’s the unfortunate acronym for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which will incorporate the Department of Labour and its Health and Safety roles from 1 July this year.

The least the government could have done was to wait until the Royal Commission on Pike River Mine reports back in September, because there are likely to be significant recommendations for change to protecting the health and safety of workers in New Zealand.  I think our treatment of health and safety has become so negligent we should be considering whether we need a standalone agency.

An announcement from the government that they are putting the merger of the health and safety functions into MOBIE on hold pending major change to tackling our death and injury rates on the job would have been a nice message for the families and workmates mourning today.

Won’t happen though.

Postscript : Sincere condolences to the family and workmates of Herman Curry, bus driver, who died at work in Friday night.

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Filed under: Health and Safety, Workers
7 Comments

Money talks

Posted by Darien Fenton on April 27th, 2012

Today we learn that the government caved into another demand from Sir Peter Jackson and Warner Bros which involved bending immigration rules in their favour.

In 2010, Peter Jackson told Government Ministers that Warners were worried about our employment law, because the distinction between “contractors” and “employees” established five years earlier in the Bryson case required employers to treat him as an employee.

Bryson was not an actor, yet we changed the law because Warners said so and in doing so, removed rights for a whole category of workers.

Turns out, it was just one of their demands.

Official Information finally released, shows that the government was only too happy to fall into line with other concerns, such as the alleged visa “blockages” for overseas performers.

And hey presto : changes have been made. And they don’t only apply to actors – they apply to everyone working in the industry.

I seem to recall John Key saying this was about New Zealand jobs.

But secret deals in immigration processes like this completely undermine our immigration systems and are unfair to Kiwi workers.

The integrity of our immigration system stands or falls on transparency, but this latest revelation adds to a trend of giving privileges to the better off and a willingness to bend the rules when money is involved.

Update: You can view the OIA request here.

Filed under: Hobbit, Immigration, Uncategorized, jobs
19 Comments

Red Alert Radio (Auckland)

Posted by Darien Fenton on April 25th, 2012

Auckland Labour MPs are now broadcasting every Thursday morning, with Red Alert Radio via PlanetFM (104.6)

We aim to provide in-depth interviews you may not hear anywhere else.  So far, there have been two broadcasts with many more ahead.

Tomorrow morning at 9.05, you can listen to an interview with Alastair Duncan, joint advocate for the Oceania workers about the state of Aged Care in New Zealand.

If you have topics you would like to hear more about, and suggestions for who you would like us to interview, happy to hear from you.

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Filed under: #OpenLabourNZ, broadcasting
3 Comments

Living Wage – an idea whose time has come?

Posted by Darien Fenton on April 20th, 2012

Who described the Living Wage as “an idea whose time has come?”

David Cameron, Conservative British PM – that’s who.

The Living Wage concept has caught on in the UK and the US and it was great to hear David Shearer put Labour’s name to it yesterday.

Everyone wants to know who, how, how much and when. But the Living Wage concept isn’t just about having a policy on paper. It’s about a movement, where communities organise to persuade the people, politicians, the council and business that paying a living wage is the right thing to do.

A Living Wage is the level of income necessary to provide acceptable standard of living for a person and their family.

It’s different to the legal minimum wage, which provides a floor below which wages must not fall, but the minimum wage is not tied to a recognised standard of living. It’s a politically decided standard, that rises or falls depending on who is in government.  Labour remains committed to lifting the minimum wage (at this stage to $15 an hour), but we can do better.

We need to get to a point where there is agreement about what is fair and what families should be expected to live on.

In the UK, London Citizens have been organising for ten years, bringing together community groups, faith based organisations, businesses, trade unions and politicians. In 2011, Citizens UK, (the nationwide equivalent of London Citizens) launched the Living Wage Foundation to respond to a growing interest in other cities.

The Living Wage  was an election issue in the 2004 London Council elections, and London Mayor, “Red” Ken Livingstone established a dedictaed Living Wage Unit within the Greater London Authority in 2004. Boris Johnson, the conservative Mayor who followed him has continued the Unit and now all of London’s councils pay all workers, including directly employed, contracted or temporary workers at least the London Living Wage or above.

This year’s London Olympics will be the first Living Wage Olympics in history. Imagine that.

Governments can lead by applying a Living Wage to everyone who works for the State Sector. Councils can do the same on the basis that wherever public money is used to purchase goods or services, low wages should not be the competitive factor. In the US Living Wage Ordinances apply this principal.

The current London Living Wage of £8.30 an hour would roughly equate to roughly NZ$16-17 an hour. This took into account the prices of staple items in the family shopping basket, along with relativities with the median income, to estimate a ‘poverty threshold wage’, and then added a 15% margin on top to give some protection against unforeseen events.

Of course such an example can only broadly indicative – but it demonstrates just why a Living Wage, not just a Minimum Wage is needed.

I’m confident that a Living Wage movement will develop in New Zealand and the hows, the whats, the whos, the how muches, and all the rest of it will gather force before the next election. It will need political support, and Labour’s David Shearer has given it.

I’m not given to quoting conservatives, but as David Cameron said, it’s an idea whose time has come.

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Filed under: Labour Party, Work and Wages, policy
30 Comments

David Shearer’s speech #2

Posted by Darien Fenton on April 19th, 2012

countryworks_newsLabour leader David Shearer made his second major “scene setting” speech in Nelson today and outlined Labour’s support for the introduction of a “living wage” movement in New Zealand to pay people what they need to live on, rather than just sticking to the minimum wage.  Here’s some excerpts :

Here in New Zealand we have been working harder than almost anyone in the developed world. But it’s not paying off.

We are trying to succeed by squeezing more out of people, by paying lower wages than other countries and working longer hours than them. When people tell me they’re actually working harder for less, I believe them.

Hundreds of thousands of honest individuals get out of bed each day and go to work, and they cannot get ahead. Take the rest home workers who earn eleven cents an hour above the minimum wage doing a really important job – looking after our parents in the years in need.

They’re playing by the rules, doing their bit. And yet how do they raise a family on eleven cents more than the minimum wage?

Take the skilled contractor or the owner of a small business who risks everything to raise the capital they need to buy equipment or a van, take on staff or subbies. I want them to know someone is on their side, and to feel hopeful that our economy is working for them just as hard as they are working.

I want them to know someone is on their side, and to feel hopeful that our economy is working for them just as hard as they are working.

Then he unpicks the productivity vs wage argument :

The average wage in 1989, in today’s dollars, was $21.49. By 2011, it had reached $24.43. But if wages grew as much as productivity for the twenty-two years up to 2011, then the hourly rate would have been $31.85. That’s an extra seven dollars an hour, or $297 a week that the average worker earned but didn’t get paid. How many people would be wanting to go to Australia as they are now in record numbers if we paid that?

And the idea of a Living Wage :

Imagine if we could create a New Zealand where everyone could earn enough to provide a good living for their family. That’s not the case now.

One emerging idea I’m interested in is the Living Wage. It’s the amount a person needs to earn to provide for themselves and a family. It’s started to catch on London since 2004 when the London mayor set up a unit that works out the Living Wage level each year. Over time, as finances allowed, Council gradually began to pay the Living Wage level. Now some businesses that contract with the Council have agreed to pay it too, whether they hire direct employees, contractors, or temporary staff.

And on the National government’s approach to our future :

We can’t cut our way to prosperity. Zero budgets are what you get when you fail. How many people would be wanting to go to Australia as they are now in record numbers if we paid that.  Surely lifting everyone up must be the point of economic growth, or why do we bother?”

And a message to New Zealand working people :

The message I want to give the thousands of New Zealanders who go to work every day, look after their kids and do the right thing, is this:

Labour will deliver for you. Under Labour you will be our priority. We want the country to work for you.

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Filed under: Labour Party, Work and Wages
21 Comments

NZ – the new low wage frontier?

Posted by Darien Fenton on April 18th, 2012

Fran O’Sullivan reported at the weekend about “New Zealand envy” from Australian businesses :

…the frank admiration across the Tasman for English’s economic policies is something that has not been displayed by Australian power-brokers since this country was in the grip of Rogernomics and Bill Birch’s labour market reforms.

Bad comparison Fran. Who in their right mind would want to own up to admiring the dreadful Bill Birch’s Employment Contracts Act or the damage inflicted by Roger Douglas?

And then today the Dom Post reports that Australian firms are moving jobs to New Zealand, attracted by our low wages and more “flexible” labour rights.

Hundreds of Australian jobs have been shifted to New Zealand as producers there try to avoid the impact of high wages, a soaring dollar and restrictive labour laws.

Supermarket giant Woolworths is the latest to transfer jobs across the Tasman, shifting 40 contact centre jobs to Auckland this week.

Imperial Tobacco has also said it will move cigarette manufacturing from Sydney to New Zealand.

As David Parker says, there are record numbers of Kiwis leaving for Australia. They are not going so they can work in call centres or cigarette-making factories.

“National made closing the wage gap a key election pledge in 2008. It now wants to attract investment to New Zealand on the basis of cheap wages.

Heinz Wattie has already ditched 300 jobs across Australia and supposedly was bringing them to New Zealand.

But not for good New Zealand jobs. These days, a Heinz Watties worker is just as likely to end up being employed by Allied Workforce – a temporary labour hire contractor, and be paid minimum wage – doing the same job directly employed and unionised workers used to do for a whole lot less.

Perhaps the brighter future we were promised involves rolling ciggies for Australia?

It certainly seems to involve low wages.

Filed under: Australia, economy, jobs
21 Comments

Amateur Hour

Posted by Darien Fenton on April 13th, 2012

Some days I despair about the quality of management we have in some of our important industries. Don’t get me wrong. We have some excellent companies with smart management, but some of the decisions by the Ports of Auckand and Talleys AFFCO just don’t cut it.

Yesterday the Ports of Auckland admitted they had leaked private information about one of their employees to a blogger who then reproduced it. Apart from being a breach of privacy, it was incredibly unethical, it is unprofessional and shows a serious lack of judgement by the management.

Then it was revealed that the wharfies have been welcomed back to work with multiple spy cameras on their machines, security guards in the lunchroom and a ban on exhibiting MUNZ logos on their clothing or belongings.

Treating your workers like they are the enemy is not a good way to go about mending bridges.

And there’s good old Talleys trying to waste SFO time and taxpayer money by claiming irregularities in the Meat Workers Union accounts. It only took the SFO a day to figure out this was a baseless complaint and reject it.

No one is pretending employment disputes are easy and I really want to see both PoAL and Talleys AFFCO settled.

But both these companies appear to be getting really bad advice. Its almost amateur hour stuff and would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so serious.

I agree with Len Brown. Heads need to roll at PoAL. He can make that happen.

Not much can be done about Talleys sadly. They just lurch from one outrageous violation to another.

Off to join the march at Moerewa.

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Filed under: Employers, Work and Wages, management, protest, union
33 Comments

Lockout or knockout?

Posted by Darien Fenton on April 5th, 2012

There will be few Easter celebrations in the families of workers employed by Talley’s AFFCO, who have extended their lockout notices to more workers over the Easter period.

There are legal questions about the legality of the Easter lockout, which appears to be another move by Talley’s to punish their workers for daring to stand up to their demands. The Holidays Act requires that workers be given a paid day off should the public holiday fall on a normal working day.  The question that has not, to be my knowledge, been tested is whether a “normal working day” applies if a worker is prevented from coming to work by their employer.

The cynical among us would say that Talleys has implemented this measure to avoid paying statutory holiday pay over Easter. But I think it goes deeper than that and into the oft demonstrated antagonism the Talley’s family towards any workers belonging to a union.

But there’s a bigger question.

Is the lockout, once rarely used by employers, now becoming the industrial weapon of choice?

Dr Kerry Taylor, historian, of Massey University thinks so, saying today that :

Lockouts were once a last resort for employers but are becoming more common, indicating a trend towards more “employer activism”

Talley’s AFFCO meatworks has locked out more than 1000 workers in Moerewa, Horoitu, Whanganui, Wairoa, Rangiuru and Feilding in a dispute over pay and conditions. A further 500 workers will be locked out over Easter so AFFCO can reportedly avoid paying statutory holidays.

Dr Taylor says AFFCO’s escalating action is a startling reminder something serious is going on in New Zealand political and industrial landscape, where in the past lockouts were the last resort, but today, they’re becoming almost commonplace.

He says the lockout is a clear case of “employer activism”, where the lockout is deployed as part of an aggressive strategy to target certain conditions of work and weaken – or break – collective action by workers.

And he points the finger at the government.

Historically employers seldom resorted to locking out

I will watch with interest the legal process around this question, but meanwhile 1500 workers are going without pay this Easter – on top of the last five weeks of lockouts.

You can support the AFFCO workers by donating – phone 0900 LOCKOUT and you’ll donate five dollars to the Meatworker’s lockout fund. Details for an online donation are: Kiwibank: account name: NZCTU DISPUTES FUND account number: 38 9007 0894028 08 Reference: AFFCO

Filed under: Holidays, Work and Wages, workers rights
58 Comments

Government says no to Ports transparency

Posted by Darien Fenton on April 4th, 2012

Today I asked the House to agree to introduce my members’ bill, called the Local Government (Council Controlled Organisations) Amendment Bill and set it down for the next Members Day. The government said no.

The bill would have made information held by ports accessible under the Official Information Act and the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.

Currently, Ports are excluded in the definition of CCOs under the Local Government Act.  An easy amendment to the Local Government Act, as proposed by No Right Turn, (thanks NRT) would have fixed this deficiency. 

Obviously, the costly dispute at the Ports of Auckland has highlighted the need for this bill. The way in which the Ports of Auckland board and management have acted without transparency and accountability has made it very clear there is a need to ensure that these publicly-owned businesses are opened to the same scrutiny every other public institution faces.

We can get information about the local school or a public library, or even SOEs, but we can’t get information about valuable assets like our publicly owned ports, that are worth millions of dollars.

It’s hard to believe any government that claims it cares about transparency and accountability would have a problem supporting a bill like this one.  But National is demonstrating that it’s all talk when it comes to open government.

So now the bill will go into the ballot. I’m not giving up.

Filed under: Open government, asset sales, local government, members' bills
12 Comments

Non-Answers

Posted by Darien Fenton on April 2nd, 2012

One of the jobs of an opposition MP is to ask questions.  It’s in the public interest to find out what our government is planning, but that’s not how the Minister of Labour sees it.  So I thought you should see just how transparent and accountable our Ministers are with the latest series of non-answers from Kate Wilkinson :

Question: Does the Minister intend to implement the National Party policy allowing employers to opt out of negotiations for a multi-employer collective agreement; if so, when will she introduce legislation to implement that change?

Answer Text: I intend to implement all policies in National’s Employment Relations manifesto in due course.

Question: Does the Minister intend to implement the National Party policy enabling employers to apply partial pay reductions for partial strikes or situations of low-level industrial action; if so, when will she introduce legislation to implement that change?

Answer Text: I intend to implement all policies in National’s Employment Relations manifesto in due course.

Question : Does the Minister intend to implement the National Party policy removing the requirement that non-union members are employed under a collective agreement for their first 30-days; if so, when will she introduce legislation to implement that change?

Answer Text: I intend to implement all policies in National’s Employment Relations manifesto in due course.

Question: Does the Minister intend to implement the National Party policy removing the requirement to conclude collective bargaining; if so, when will she introduce legislation to implement that change?

Answer Text: Guess what ? (To the tune of “Altogether Now) : I intend to implement all policies in National’s Employment Relations manifesto in due course.

Well, I guess we know that the Minister intends to implement all policies in National’s Employment Relations manifesto in due course. I’m sure the 1000 plus locked out workers at Talleys AFFCO will be comforted by these answers, along with the Oceania workers who are still taking action to get something resembling a cost of living increase. I know Kate Wilkinson’s under threat by the takeover of her department by the “business facing” ambitions of Steven Joyce, so I thought she might be asserting herself at the moment.

So please. Can I have a little more?

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Filed under: Ministers, workers rights
24 Comments

Hate to say it, but in Australia…….

Posted by Darien Fenton on March 23rd, 2012

As New Zealand workers face growing employer militancy with lockouts and demands for give-backs, Australia has been getting on with ensuring secure jobs and improving the pay and conditions of more vulnerable workers.

I’m really pleased to see that the Road Safety Remuneration Bill passed with a resounding vote in favour in the Senate.  It comes after a long running campaign to make roads safer for all users by taking the pressure from truckies to work long hours, take short cuts and scrimp on maintenance just to earn a living.

I tried to get an inquiry into NZ truck safety and its relationship with remuneration a couple of years ago, but was blocked by the National Party, despite evidence of a trucking nightmare in New Zealand.

The problem hasn’t gone away.  There is still one truck related death a week in New Zealand.  Many drivers are owner-drivers, so they have no employment rights, because they are in a commercial arrangement. Some do okay, but others are struggling. Other driving industries, such as the Courier Industry also face enormous pressure.

I just want to see people earn fair income for the work they do.

The other bill the Australian Senate passed this week is the Fair Work Amendment (Textile, Clothing and Footwear Inudstry) Bill which extends most provisions of the Fair Work Act to contract outworkers in the textile, clothing and footwear industry by deeming them to be employees. Our legislation covers “Homeworkers” and deems them to be employees, which came about after serious exploitation of Homecare workers in the 1990’s and a major court decision.

It may be that we are ahead of Australia in this instance, but their legislation provides a good study on how we might tackle the ever increasing dependent contracting arrangements in New Zealand.

But wait…. does National care?

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Filed under: Contractors, Employers, Work and Wages, non standard work, transport
13 Comments

Secret ballots and lockouts

Posted by Darien Fenton on March 22nd, 2012

Auckland needs its Port to be working at full capacity again and yesterday I thought we might be getting there.

After Employment Court Judge Barrie Travis issued his minute late yesterday, it seemed like the damaging dispute could be settled, through a return to good faith bargaining and mediation processes under our employment law. 

Today we have the strange situation where the Ports workers want to go back to work, but apparently PoAL won’t let them. 

PoAL has issued notices of indefinite lockout which came less than 24 hours after they agreed with the Employment Court to resume good faith negotiations. 

But that notice doesn’t take effect until 14 days after the notice was issued. The workers are lawfully able to return to work in the meantime and I understand this was their intention.  If the Ports management prevent them, it will be an unlawful lockout.

Perhaps it was coincidence, but last night we debated the final committee stages of Tau Henare’s Secret Ballot for Strikes bill.  The Bill would require unions to conduct secret ballots wherever strike action was being considered. Most unions already do this, but there are real problems with this bill, which I won’t go into too much here.

Tau’s argument was that this was democratic. OK. But why should only one party to the employment relationship have to be democratic?  I proposed an amendment that would have provided more balance to the bill, which would have required shareholders to conduct a secret ballot before a lockout. 

So, in the case of the Ports of Auckland Ltd, the shareholders would have had to hold a ballot before the lockout notices were issued.  That would have been interesting indeed.

But of course the National Party and its cronies voted the amendment down, along with others that would have made the bill more workable.

Like so many things in the employment relationship, National believes that things should only go one way – and that’s definitely not in favour of workers.

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Filed under: Right to strike, union, workers rights
51 Comments

Time to talk about work

Posted by Darien Fenton on March 19th, 2012

James Ritchie, National Secretary of the Dairy Workers Union has a good piece in the NZ Herald today calling for a national conversation about work. It’s a timely call, as we are seeing good jobs in our primary and export industries under threat, with pretty draconian actions being taken by some employers.  James Ritchie says that insecure work is destroying our country, saying :

What about the quality of the jobs that are being created, demanded and restructured? Do employers and Government have a responsibility to provide the space to negotiate a decent job?

A decent job is one which is healthy and safe and which allows the worker to have some say over the work and the working conditions. It is an opportunity for training, personal development and ideally for a career path.

A decent job pays enough to keep body and spirit together and provides an environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and the constant threat of dismissal.

The enormous growth of insecure work in our society denies individuals opportunities for development. It is almost the only work being offered to young people entering the job market. It is common for workers to be notified to come to work, or told their daily hours, by text message and many have no guaranteed hours or guaranteed time off.

We’re not alone in this.  A few weeks ago, I posted about the Precariat and the author, Guy Standing was on Radio NZ this morning talking about a global phenomenon and the risks to society and our future.

Should we in New Zealand just lie down and accept it ? Some have resorted to arguing that any job’s a good job. There’s an attitude that people should be grateful to have a job and the gradual erosion of job security and decent pay and conditions is just a fact of life.

Some are even getting into “deserving” workers and the “non deserving” workers.  I’ve heard almost no-one criticise the Oceania aged care workers (and I strongly support them), but others, like the Port workers, standing up for decent work, built up over years of negotiation and give and take are pilloried as jurassic and unreasonable, despite one of the more flexible collective agreements I’ve seen.

We can keep doing this to ourselves. But we will pay a price – and in fact, we already are. Ask many Kiwis and they’ve more than likely already booked their ticket to Australia, or  likely still, their kids, like mine, have already fled. Others are depending on support from the Sallies or other organisations, or just getting by because of Working for Families. It’s not a pretty picture.

So I agree with James.  Time to have a national conversation about work.  Not just about jobs, not just about where are the jobs, but what kind of jobs?

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Filed under: Uncategorized, Work and Wages, jobs
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Square wheels and Petronius Arbiter

Posted by Darien Fenton on March 16th, 2012

Restructuring often occurs when there is no plan, when things are getting a bit hard and those in charge have to look like they are doing something.

I used to have the quote below from Gaius Petronius Arbiter on my wall at the union office, both to remind managers who were trying to make their mark, and to remind myself as the leader of a large private sector union and employer of more than 70 people. (And please don’t argue it’s a false quote from Petronius Arbiter.  I know all that stuff. Regardless of who wrote it, it’s still a goodie).

We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganised.

I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising;

and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress

while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralisation.

A long serving experienced member in the airline industry described it to me as the “square wheel syndrome.”

New management comes in, wants to make their mark, so announces that planes will have square wheels from now on. Gradually, the edges are cut off the square wheels, until they are round again. In the meantime, there’s been wastage, loss of morale and huge sums and effort exhausted in a restructuring programme that often ends up where it started, except more money is spent rehiring redundant workers as consultants. Trevor put it well in this post.

We’re all for efficient public services, but the latest announcement of a Mega-Ministry sounds like Steven Joyce is inventing square wheels, all in the name of his super minister status.

John Key needs to put Petronius Arbiter – false quote or not – on his wall – and share it with Steven Joyce.

Filed under: Super Ministries, restructuring
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