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From social partners to bit players

Posted by Darien Fenton on February 3rd, 2012

The emphasis of the Department of Labour Briefing to Incoming Ministers has significantly changed in 2011.

In the 2008 Briefing,  the Social Partners (Business NZ and Council of Trade Unions) were referred to frequently. Not now.

The notion of social partnership and tripartism is one that our government initially signed up to.  The Jobs Summit, early in John Key’s new government was an example.  Kate Wilkinson, Minister of Labour described this in her speech to the International Labour Organisation in 2009, saying  :

….”We are setting out a credible road to economic recovery, so we can emerge stronger from the recession than we went into it. ….. In this, we’ve taken an inclusive, tripartite approach, recognising that the problems arising from the current situation affect all New Zealanders. In late February, our Prime Minister, the Honourable John Key, hosted a national Jobs Summit which saw unions, business and Government united by a common desire to do as much as possible to keep New Zealanders in work during this recession….”

The 2008 BIM described the purpose of the portfolio as  :

  • productive, rewarding, and safe employment relationships, including bargaining, mediation and dispute resolution
  • setting, communicating, promoting, inspecting, and (where necessary) enforcing minimum standards of health and safety, and employment conditions
  • raising the value and quality of work, by promoting good practice and positive change in workplace cultures and practices
  • cooperation and interaction with other interested parties – including industries, sectors, and regions – in collaboration with social partners (Business New Zealand and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions)
  • ensuring New Zealand both benefits from, and contributes to, international labour standards and fora.

But the slimmed down description of the role of the Labour portfolio in the 2011 BIM says the focus of the Minister and the Department is ensuring :

  • the labour market regulatory system is effective
  • employers and employees understand their rights and comply with their obligations
  • workplaces follow effective and sustainable employment relations and health and safety practices
  • New Zealand benefits from, and contributes to, international labour standards and forums.

Businesses are mentioned 43 times. Unions are mentioned once. Social partnership is over, it seems.

And significantly, there’s no mention of low pay, of addressing the ever-growing wage gap with Australia and the issues for self-employed and vulnerable contractors. All are workers trying to make a living and have the right to expect more from their government.

I’m looking forward to hearing Kate Wilkinson’s explanation on her annual trip to Geneva this year.

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Filed under: CTU, Employers, Workers, business, labour
4 Comments

Thanks johns

Posted by Trevor Mallard on November 16th, 2011

LP A2 street poster

Filed under: labour, senior citizens
30 Comments

Facebook priorities

Posted by Trevor Mallard on October 12th, 2011

Screen shot 2011-10-12 at 1.39.01 PM

Screen shot 2011-10-12 at 1.38.44 PM

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Filed under: Social media, labour, national
28 Comments

Sport and Rec policy out tomorrow

Posted by Trevor Mallard on October 11th, 2011

Not one of the big policies but a few points of interest especially sport/education relationship.

Filed under: labour, sport
2 Comments

The importance of being Labour #2

Posted by Clare Curran on August 22nd, 2011

And on another note, re white-anting; the attempts by the Greens to encroach on Labour territory is also happening in Australia. Former AWU Secretary Bill Shorten (now Assistant Finance Minister) got it right when he said that people will always need unions and that Labor and unions were a “bulwark of democracy”.

“The idea that people, when they go to work, don’t need assistance is wrong.”

Mr Shorten said his view of unionism was not based on the idea that workers were stupid or unable to think for themselves.

But an individual working in a large company would always need support.

“The company has a human resources manager, the company belongs to an employer association, the company has lawyers,” he said.

“Who do you have?”

Mr Shorten said Labor’s mission to deliver social justice remained in place and that the party’s strongest asset was its ability to tailor policies to help people cope with change.

He said he did not want to spark a verbal stoush with the Greens but noted that the minor party had no economic story.

The New Zealand Labour Party has its roots in the trade union movement. The unions are evolving and adapting as they should.The Labour Party draws on talent from many walks of life, as it should. It’s perspectives are not always in direct alignment with unions.

But let’s not every forget where we came from and what our enduring values are. And how important that relationship is.

I won’t.

Filed under: #ownourfuture, economy, labour, union
104 Comments

The Business Codgerati

Posted by Darien Fenton on June 26th, 2011

There’s been a lot of flak about Alasdair Thompson’s comments last week (and rightly so). He’s shown the worst side of the business codgerati. Business organisations and right-wing acolytes like Jenny Shipley have been distancing themselves big time. The organisation he heads, the Employers and Manufacturing Association (Northern) is having a Board meeting tomorrow to decide his future.

The Sunday Star Times editorial says today that “it’s reminded us silly we used to be” and how this kind of standard sexism was once standard in New Zealand politics and business…….“it’s so 1950’s.”

The SST goes on to say :

“But we should not be too complacent about this.  If bosses have become more enlightened and workplaces more friendly to women and minorities, in some ways they are more worker-unfriendly than they used to be……  in some ways workers have less power to push for change than they had in the 1950’s.  Some employers think this is fine; they regard unions as obstacles to commercial progress. That is about as crass a stereotype as the one about the skiving menstruators.”

That is so true and well done to the SST for nailing this. While every business organisation now spouts their policies on equal employment opportunity, flexible working hours, work life balance and their opposition to discrimination their prejudices are still there for all to see among many of them.

Every time there’s talk about giving workers more bargaining power or strengthening their rights, the codgerati are out there, saying “it’s a return to the past” or “it’s going to ruin us”.

Witness the reaction to the $15 minimum wage and ACT’s backward looking ideas that youth rates are going to solve youth unemployment.

Still a long way to go.

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Filed under: Employers, act party, business, economy, labour, minimum wage, union, workers rights
9 Comments

Uh oh – here it comes

Posted by Darien Fenton on June 8th, 2011

John Key told the Seafood Council today that if National is re-elected in November, further changes will be made to employment law. 

I’m guessing they won’t be good changes for workers, especially when he boasted “trade unions won’t like them.”

He claims a flexible labour market is good for employers and workers.  Does he mean the one in five women employed in the public sector who work overtime for no extra pay as reported today by the PSA?  Does he meant the contribution they make of an estimated 2.5 million hours of unpaid work a year, worth about $54.5 million and equivalent to 1360 full-time jobs?

What I’m hearing repeatedly from John Key’s National Government now is that working people make no contribution to the economy – they have no role in productivity, should have no say in the workplace and most of all, should not expect either to have rights or to know anything about them.

Although the government has made some pretty hideous changes to employment rights, I thought we’d got past the real ideological crap of the past. 

But it’s heading our way in force.  Cuts to workers rights, low pay, asset sales and welfare changes – to name just a few things. 

Sounds like a government with no plan to me.

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Filed under: Health and Safety, labour, legislation, low pay, workers rights
23 Comments

Toe in the water

Posted by Darien Fenton on June 5th, 2011

Never thought I would find myself agreeing with Bill Ralston – or at least hardly ever, but his column in this week’s Listener, where he says that ‘most of what Human Resources departments do is ludicrous” caught my eye.

Ralston says that

HR people are the new corporate shamans, weaving their spells to improve business outputs to the detriment of any real humantity

He describes some  HR tools – psychometric testing for new employees, the setting of KPIs, the annual employee engagement survey, and most insultingly of all – the “exit interview” – even where a worker has been sacked.

I don’t want to denigrate HR people. It’s important to have competent and capable Employment Relations practitioners among firms and unions.

But the worst mistake HR people make is thinking that they are the voice for their employees.  They’re not and that’s where I think this whole fad has gone horribly wrong.

Someone I met recently observed that he had just attended a conference with 1200 employment lawyers and HR specialists. This intrigued me.

When I first started working as a rookie union organiser in the late 1980’s, disputes were negotiated between hands-on lay people. It would have been hard to find 120 employment law specialists and HR people, let alone the thousands that are out there today.

Ironically, the National Government’s Employment Contracts Act (ECA), which lasted a decade in the 1990’s, was designed to bring so-called freedom and individual choice to the workplace contributed to this.  It spawned a whole new growth industry.

It promoted individualism over collectivism and a “contractual relationship”; it was regulation-lite with words like “freedom” and “choice” prominent in the ideological language of the time (sound familiar?). What regulation there was shifted from collective to individual workplace relationships and a deliberate undermining of unions as representatives of working people.
(more…)

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Filed under: Labour Party, economy, jobs, labour, productivity, workers rights
20 Comments

The Aussie skills budget

Posted by David Shearer on May 11th, 2011

If we wanted to see just how Australia’s budget set it on a path to further outstrip NZ, take a look at the priorities they set in the area of skills. I’ve divided their figures by 5 – Australia’s population is about 22m against our 4.3 – to get a very rough approximation for what this kind of investment might look like in NZ.

- $500 m ($3b in Australia) over 6 years to upskill the workforce

- $110m ($558m) to a new National Workforce Development Fund for 130,000 industry training places

- $40m (100m) on apprenticeships.

Will National’s budget come anywhere near to putting the same investment into skills and training? Well, I’m not holding my breath. But if you wanted the evidence to see the gap grow wider, here it is.

Filed under: Australia, Skills, labour
23 Comments

Greens to run party vote campaign in Central

Posted by Trevor Mallard on April 21st, 2011

Greens launched Wellington Central campaign last night.

It is the most controversial waka house this side of Cook Strait, but the Greens weren’t put off, last night launching their Wellington Central campaign at Te Wharewaka o Poneke, on the waterfront

Interesting to hear their candidate Gareth Hughes describe it as a campaign for the party vote on Backbenches last night. Mature beyond his years.

Going to be interesting to watch the approach in Whangarei, Waitakere, Auckland Central, Maungakiekie, and the provincial marginals.
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Filed under: MMP, greens, labour, politics
21 Comments

Waitangi and ANZAC day confusion

Posted by Trevor Mallard on February 6th, 2011

Just to make it clear that having a public holiday on the Monday after Waitangi Day or ANZAC day when they fall on a weekend or another public holiday, doesn’t mean you celebrate them on the Monday.

They would just be treated like Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years Day and the day after.

No great secret that I looked at the issue when in government and decided that implementing four weeks annual holiday for all every year was a higher priority. What is now clear is that the public want both and as soon as possible.

And while we are sorting out these anomalies we should sort Easter Sunday as well. It is probably the most important day on the Christian calendar, but because when we sorted our public holidays no one contemplated shops opening or people working on a Sunday it was left off the list. That needs to be fixed.

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Filed under: Employers, economy, inequality, labour, minimum wage, retail, union, workers rights
17 Comments

New candidates, new pages, worth watching

Posted by Trevor Mallard on January 29th, 2011

It is going to be an interesting year for how candidates use social media. I blog a bit here and have fun with my 5000 Facebook friends. But some people do these things really well.

Have a look here to see how David Clark who will be the next MP for Dunedin North has an interesting page. And tick “like” to keep following.

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Filed under: Social media, labour
8 Comments

Brownlee privilege letter

Posted by Trevor Mallard on December 24th, 2010

While most of us will be easing down today thought a few nerds will still be interested in the fact that I have written to the Speaker following Brownlee’s Hobbit comments and the release on the facts.

Will continue to look at Key’s comments but to date his most blatant misleading appears to be of the media.

Letter below (more…)

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Filed under: Arts and Culture, labour, parliament, union
33 Comments

Twas the week before Christmas….

Posted by Grant Robertson on December 21st, 2010

At the risk of being told that all governments do it, National has really out done itself for the week before Christmas dump of stories you don’t like. Not content with the OIA release that shows that a large chunk of the Hobbit debacle was totally unnecessary and opportunistic, and that Gerry Brownlee called Helen Kelly a liar when he knew that was not fair, we now have confirmation of the privatisation of ACC. Bear in mind Ministers have had this report for six months and have refused OIA requests for it. This is political cynicism at its worst.

Of course there is no chance of getting comment from John Key or Gerry Brownlee because they have already left on their holiday. Mr Key has been unavailable to explain whether he or Murray McCully misled Parliament about the Dalai Lama. Apparently they don’t have phones in Hawaii.

The ACC decision will most definitely be a major political issue. I am more than happy to see the focus go on privatisation and asset sales next year, as it seems that is where National is going. We have rehearsed the arguments around privatisation of ACC before- ordinary New Zealanders will pay more and get less as insurance companies seek to maximise their profits. Our globally well regarded scheme, with lower overheads than private schemes is compromised and we go back to the 90s for no good reason.

Anyway, at least we all know one question for the first question time of next year.

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Filed under: ACC, democracy, labour, union
63 Comments

Kris at Caucus

Posted by Trevor Mallard on November 24th, 2010

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Filed under: labour
28 Comments

Unfairness on its way

Posted by Darien Fenton on November 23rd, 2010

The government’s third and final reading of Employment Relations Bill (No 2) and Holidays Amendment Bill, which went through the House today means that unfair employment laws are on their way.

The government pushed through the final stages of two pieces of legislation that attack the rights of wage and salary earners. Both of these bills will impact on health and safety and the rights to challenge the decisions of employers in unjustified dismissals. They will inevitably reduce protections for all workers.

Labour strongly opposed both bills all through the process, along with thousands of submitters and 22,000 workers who marched, rallied and campaigned against them, but National ignored all opposition.

The only small ray of hope in the debate was that the Maori Party changed its mind and voted against the Holidays Amendment Bill.  Good on them. 

But the National Party couldn’t even do the third reading justice.  Their members gave pitiful 3 minutes speeches parroting the government lines – which I thought was a disgrace.

I question whether today was an appropriate day to consider these bills, given the awful situation at Pike River Coal Mine.  I don’t think the government gave any thought to the connection between the birth of the Labour Party and the role that miners have played in improving rights for all NZ workers.  It certainly wouldn’t have considered that many of the miners on the West Coast are members of the EPMU and one of the missing men is an EPMU delegate.

Unfortunately, all workers will soon be facing the consequences of reduced rights. A sad day all round.

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Filed under: 90 day trial period, Employers, Holidays, Labour Party, justice, labour, workers rights
61 Comments

Dr Brash : The Washington Consensus is dead – the party’s over!

Posted by Darien Fenton on November 4th, 2010

Reading the 2025 Taskforce report #2 reinforces what a lucky escape we had in 2005 when Don Brash and National were beaten by Labour in the general election.

If that hadn’t happened, by now we would be in Brashimania – the country’s assets would be sold off or privatised, NZ Rail and Air NZ would be in the hands of overseas interests, steadily being stripped again of assets, the minimum wage would be gone, the labour market re-regulated in an even more draconian way than the ECA, public health and education would be kneecapped with “competition”, early childhood education would only for those who could afford it, and welfare reforms would ensure that only the “deserving poor” had any assistance – with Dr Brash deciding who they were.

Don’t get me wrong. John Key’s NACTs are just as dangerous. They’re just a bit more careful and devious, because they’re scared of public opinion and know the electorate won’t tolerate another Douglas, Ruth or Brash attack.

The 2025 Taskforce, led by Dr Brash and his cheerleading group for ACT is costing NZers half a million bucks. It’s got another year to run. Yet, its members continue to insist that the failed policies of the 1980s and 1990’s will work now – even when they didn’t work before. Cuts to workers rights, minimum wage, cuts in Working for Families, an increase in the cost of student loans, and severe cuts in other government programmes,along with privatisation of more assets and services, including health and education are all there in report # 2.

Its pleasing to see the NZ Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA) criticising the report.  The NZMEA says that the report is long on diagnosis – (yes, that’s right, we all know Australian wages are way ahead of ours)- but short on therapy.

They say, in their press release that

The Taskforce’s recommendations largely echo the Washington Consensus.  This approach has not seen substantial export growth from the countries that have applied it.  Earlier this year, the IMF recommended more pragmatism on exchange rates from small economies instead.

And Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director of the IMF said more just last Monday with this   :

…Such ‘growth models’ were unbalanced and unsustainable and inequality may have actually stoked this unsustainable model. In countries like the United States, borrowing seemed to allow ordinary people to share in the rising prosperity…. Inequality can dampen economic opportunity, by preventing the poor from accessing the financing needed to pursue profitable investments. It can divert people toward unproductive activities.

The Washington Consensus is dead. What we need are new ideas and new thinking – the kind that is coming through in Labour policy development that had Labour Party conference delegates buzzing about a different future under a Labour government.

The Taskforce seems incapable of new thinking and should be disbanded. It discredits the government who will once again ignore its recommendations – and it makes ACT look even more stupid than they are.

Dr Brash should give NZ taxpayers our half a million bucks back and accept that the party’s over.

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Filed under: Australia, Employers, Manufacturing, act party, economy, labour
106 Comments

A Shortcut to Disaster

Posted by Damien O'Connor on October 28th, 2010

I have learnt today that the Food Safety Authority in collaboration with the meat Industry are about to conduct a trial on a new system of meat inspection at freezing works without the assistance of Meat Inspectors.

It is an interesting contradiction and my fear is that industry self regulation is the object of the exercise. Such ideals have proven all too often to be disastrous from international experience. At a time when the meat industry is under extreme pressure at every level from farmer to marketplace the risk is that inadequate inspection leading to any form of contaminated export meat would cripple our meat exports and reputation as a quality food producing nation.

Apparently no details have been made available to the meat inspectors so the assumption is that chain workers will carry out assessment of the health of the carcasses and the Vets will sign off the consignments for export. If you presume no skill is necessary to be a meat inspector we might be ok. But as I know to get the inspections spot on takes training, skill and experience. One mistake identified by our trading buyers and we are doomed.

The question is, does the risk justify the cost savings if any over time?? It is also ironic that in Select Committee today the Food Safety Authority was trying to convince us of the importance of robust systems for food safety under the new Food Bill.

There will be a few hard Questions for them at the next meeting !!!

Filed under: Consumer Affairs, Uncategorized, agriculture, jobs, labour, rural, trade, union
21 Comments

Fairness at work demanded

Posted by Carol Beaumont on October 20th, 2010

DSC02890 (4) (2)Along with Green MP Keith Locke I attended the CTU rally in Auckland today.  7,000 wage and salary earners gathered in Manukau to express their anger and concern at the actions of this National government.  They were part of actions in 30 locations throughout New Zealand with 22,000 people participating.

The Auckland rally was a very powerful gathering. Strong statements were made against the removal of rights – the right to challenge unfair dismissals, the right to see your union representative on site, the right to rest and meal breaks, the right to have holidays.

At the end I was asked by a journalist whether I thought the Government would listen.   I responded that while they should listen I expected that they would not.  This Government is going to force through this backward looking suite of attacks on working people.  These changes will not lift workplace productivity, lift wages or close the wage gap with Australia – quite the contrary!  We will all be worse off as a consequence.

The speakers today reflected concerns that I am hearing throughout the community.   These attacks are not well received in the community and for many this is further evidence of a Government out of touch with the views and reality of many New Zealanders.

Filed under: labour, protest, union, workers rights
40 Comments

Labour supports wage and salary earners

Posted by Trevor Mallard on October 20th, 2010

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About 4,000 wage and salary earners turned out today in Wellington (and more than 20,000 nationwide) to show the Key government that they oppose their proposals designed to cut wages in a direct contradiction to their promise to bring our wage level up to Australia’s.

Labour has made it clear we will reverse the laws that allowed people to be fired for no reason in their forst 90 days, that prevent someone asking their union rep to look at a dangerous machine and that requires people to give a medical certificate for one days absence.

More than that we will have labour relations legislation which means individuals will have an ability to join a collective agreement even when they are in a small firm.

Filed under: labour, union, value of work, workers rights
43 Comments

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