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Archive for the ‘low pay’ Category
Friday poll – how much did bill english double dip
Posted by Trevor Mallard on August 13th, 2010 Loading ... Loading ...National announces plan at last – shift to Australia
Posted by Trevor Mallard on August 5th, 2010Sometimes you get leaks of policy through interjections. Today we got a gem from Paul Quinn.
After it was pointed out that twice as many firms in Aussie are increasing staff this year than in NZ, and that 23% more Aussie firms are planning to increase wages we at last got the plan.
Quinn said – Kiwis should move to Australia.
John Key’s Pizza Guy
Posted by Darien Fenton on July 21st, 2010Sanjay, 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.
All workers to suffer while Key pretends to pander to Act
Posted by Trevor Mallard on July 18th, 2010John Key has today announced a stinging attack on people who work for a living.
While it is being characterised as anti union it goes much further and is designed to suppress wages and reduce working conditions including holidays for all workers whether or not they are union members.
Remember Key’s promise to close the wage gao with Australia – this policy will do exactly to opposite. It is a sign of Key dropping the “Mr Nice Guy” approach and reverting to old form.
And don’t be taken in by John Key’s lies about this reform being radical in order to get Act party votes. Act will vote for any reform that reduces salaries and working conditions. It didn’t need to be this radical to get their vote.
I think John Key knows that and is a liar – a more generous person might just call him stupid.
BUDGET 2010: Neither Fair Nor Fixing
Posted by David Cunliffe on May 20th, 2010It’s Budget Day. You’ll be hearing lots from us over the next few days and I hope many of you will join our Finance Team live here on Red Alert tonight at 8.30 pm.
Most New Zealanders already understand that a Budget that (at best) delivers only marginal gain to middle and lower income earners and a whopping great windfall to the top end, is not fair. It is however, precsely what you would expect from National.
Equally important, the Budget as it has been foreshadowed will not fix the underlying problems of this economy: lack of savings, skills, innovation and exports. These are exactly the themes Labour is pushing – as reflected in todays Dominion and Herald (note the Herald got the headline wrong).
If you don’t believe me on this – just refer to Swtizerland’s IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, which shows NZ slipping back for exactly the reasons Labour has been saying.
Think about it, if the problems are insufficient savings, exports, skills and innovation, how on earth is raising GST and an income tax windfall for the wealthiest possibly going to address that?
It proves our underlying critique of this visionless National Government - they had “nine long years” to think up policies to take the country forward, to deliver on the step change they campaigned for – and so far, nothing.
Hon Vui Mark Gosche – NZLP Life Member
Posted by Darien Fenton on May 16th, 2010
It was a great moment at the Labour Party Region 1 Conference on Friday night when Vui Mark Gosche was honoured for his contribution to the Labour Movement with Life Membership of the Labour Party.
Mark was a leader of the Service Workers Union until 1997, and was an awesome advocate for low paid workers, particularly during the tough times of the early 1990s when National set out to destroy workers’ rights and organisation.
I know that Mark didn’t have expectations about being an MP. He campaigned for others and worked within the CTU and the Labour Party for change. But when he decided to put his name forward, there was great pride when he was first elected to Parliament as a list MP in 1996. In 1999, he won the seat of Maungakiekie, and went on to hold a number of Cabinet posts, including Minister of Corrections, Minister of Housing, Minister of Transport, and Minister of Pacific Island Affairs.
Mark and his family experienced the worst of times in the coming years, with the illness of his wonderful wife Carol, after a brain haemorrhage in 2002.
In April 2007 he was bestowed with the Samoan matai title Vui at his grandmother’s village of Lano in Samoa and left parliament in 2008 to spend more time with his family.
Mark was a leader to many, not only in the union, but in the Pacific community. He is sorely missed in the caucus, but he carries on his commitment, as he always has, outside of Parliament.
I was proud to sing “Solidarity” alongside others when he received his well earned Labour Party gold badge.
The best comment came from Mark who said that while the Honours system in NZ has gone silly, the two most important Honours for him are his Life Membership of his union, the Service & Food Workers Union and his Life Membership of his party, the NZ Labour Party.
Building to Budget 2010
Posted by David Cunliffe on May 4th, 2010Based on what we have heard so far from the Government, Budget 2010 will not deliver the jobs and the future New Zealand needs.
Instead of jobs, it will reward the few at the top and put more pressure on many families and small businesses.
The Government’s intention to raise GST on every New Zealand family will mean extra pressure when many are already finding it tough to make ends meet.
And borrowing to fund the tax cuts for the top end would be madness when Kiwis are being told to tighten their belts for another round of cuts to health, education and other front-line services.
Worse, fiddling with GST won’t tackle the real problems. It won’t address the fundamentals that matter.
New Zealanders know our country is not paying its way. We are not exporting enough. Our current account is bleeding red ink. Exporters are struggling to survive a wildly swinging exchange rate and unstable world markets.
Rather than saving and investing in real businesses that create value and jobs, Kiwis borrowed heavily to bid up each other’s property prices.
And when the Reserve Bank raised interest rates to cool inflation, it sucked in more hot money that just made that problem worse. That’s why Labour is committed to rebalancing the economy to rebuild savings and exports.
The next Labour government will be different because we will focus on jobs, growing the economy and higher incomes for New Zealanders.
That means investing in our people, their education, and their opportunities to get ahead.
It means boosting innovation, technology and R&D, and helping grow the new businesses that will be the stars of tomorrow.
The real issue is how to grow wages and reduce the pressure on small business and family budgets.
Labour will offer a better alternative, one that will put people first, act with integrity and plan for the longer term.
Labour believes that Budget 2010 should be about good jobs, a growing economy and a fair go for all. Lets see how Bill English measures up…
Weird Night
Posted by Trevor Mallard on April 21st, 2010Voted twice with National Party on Labour Relations members’ bills.
First to support Tau Henare’s bill to require secret ballots for strikes. Already part of the rules for the vast majority of unions. And a good opportunity to set up a system for ensuring proper process before employers lock workers out.
Secondly to oppose the Act bill to cut wages for young people.
Some very good speeches, Tau Henare on his bill, Jacinda Ardern on youth rates were the highlights for me.
Why don’t you just bugger off to Australia? I am.
Posted by Phil Twyford on April 6th, 2010Spent an enjoyable lunch hour on the picket line with members of the Service and Food Workers Union protesting a zero pay offer from the IHC. These workers do difficult work, helping people with intellectual disabilities live an ordinary life. A 2% wage increase doesn’t seem unreasonable in my view.
The union says the IHC has already received a 2% increase in funding from the Ministry of Health for their residential services but it is refusing to pass any of that on to their front line workers. It also seems reasonable compared to the kind of pay increase Bill English is dishing out to highly paid executives courtesy of National’s tax cuts.
There was a classic moment of unintended irony when a passerby started yelling at the workers: “What are ya worried about? If you are not getting paid enough why don’t you just bugger off to Australia? I am!”
Precisely. The exodus to Australia figured large in National’s campaign rhetoric, but they have done nothing since the election that makes me think they want to close the trans-Tasman pay gap.
Jaine gets a payrise
Posted by Darien Fenton on March 23rd, 2010
There’s more going on in Parliament than Trevor’s canny cornering of the government today and the hilarious debate that followed. These things keep us amused, but I was just as happy to hear that Jaine Ikurere, who cleans John Key’s office is to get a payrise.
Thanks to the hard work of her union and the cleaners’ staunch support, Jaine’s pay will go up by 50 cents an hour to $13.10. It’s not the $14.62 that other cleaners get in the public sector, but there is provision for that to occur, should the client fund it.
The client, in Jaine’s case, is Parliamentary Services. That’s why Labour MPs wrote to the Speaker a few weeks ago. He’s the Minister in charge of Parliamentary Services and we want the budget for cleaning our offices to be increased by the small amount necessary to enable the contractor to pay them more.
We got the expected response. Very sympathetic, but the bargaining is between the union and the employer. The Speaker is not the employer and can’t get involved in negotiations. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the government can put more money into the parliamentary services budget and ring-fence it to fund a decent pay jolt for the lowest paid – just as Labour did for Hospital service workers and School Cleaners.
I’m pleased Jaine got a pay increase. She did it with her workmates and her union.
Now for the next $1.52 an hour.
Re-balancing the economy
Posted by Clare Curran on March 6th, 2010Have discovered a new blog called Labourlist. UK. Interesting writers. This post, by a chap called Stuart Lansley, talks about how soaring inequality contributed to the crash.
He contends that
Although global imbalances, excessive bank leveraging and reckless financial risk-taking helped trigger the meltdown of 2008/09, the crisis has it roots in the rising income and wealth gap, and the way a new domestic and global super-rich elite created economic fragility.
And he argues that the most urgent task now is to rebalance the real economy. Which means halting and reversing the sliding wage share, reducing the gap between rich and poor, shrinking the size of the financial sector and increasing the flow of funds into productive and sustainable economic activity.
Not really where National’s heads are at!
Another key promise broken – wage gap with aussie to blow out
Posted by Trevor Mallard on March 1st, 2010A Grant Thornton survey of employers in NZ and Australia reported in the Herald, has resulted in their prediction that the wage gap is set to increase.
They are predicting the brain drain to turn into a full flowing torrent.
Not really surprising. From unemployment being 4.2% in both countries in 2008 we now have 7.3% and going up and they have 5.3% and going down.
And what was the difference. The Aussie government took positive counter measures which minimised the employment flow on from the recession while John Key sat on his hands, ran a talk fest, and in fact made the situation worse with cuts.
I’m not sure whether Key knows what he is doing and is deeply cycnical, or doesn’t know what he is doing.
Dear Mr Speaker (again)
Posted by Darien Fenton on February 26th, 2010After protesting at parliament last week, followed by Labour MPs writing to the speaker, cleaners at Parliament have sent their own letter to the Speaker, asking him to assist. This is a big deal for these cleaners to do this, just as it was for them to protest outside parliament last week – they’ve never done it before and as they say, they are largely invisible, working during the night when politicians are sleeping to keep their offices clean and maintained to a high standard.
Meanwhile, I want to introduce you to Jaine Ikurere, who cleans John Key’s office. She’s signed the letter, and like the other cleaners at Parliament, earns just $12.55 an hour.
I hope Mr Speaker listens to Jaine and her fellow cleaners.
Dear Mr Speaker
Posted by Darien Fenton on February 18th, 2010As Labour Members of Parliament we are very concerned that cleaners working inside Parliament are being paid just a few cents above the minimum wage.
These cleaners are employed by a private contractor (Spotless Services Limited – SSL), and are paid as little as $12.55 an hour.
We believe this reflects badly on this place, especially given that cleaners within other parts of the state sector such as schools and public hospitals are already being paid $14.62 an hour by the same contractor.
We think Parliament has a responsibility to set an example, and should not support poverty wages for the people who work so hard to make the lives of MPs run more smoothly.
Cleaners should be paid a living wage, and this should be at least $14.62 an hour, in line with other state sector cleaners.
We are aware that cleaners are currently negotiating their Collective Agreement and while those negotiations are directly with their employer, as the “client” we think that a message from yourself and MPs urging the contractors to pay a fair living wage to all cleaners could assist.
Yours sincerely,
Darien Fenton and other Labour MPs
Our invisible workers
Posted by Clare Curran on February 17th, 2010
Damn. Rick got in before me, with his really good story. My story’s a bit similar. I started my working life as a cleaner in Dunedin at Wakari Hospital’s Ward 10 (Psych ward). It was just before my 15th birthday (sshh). I desperately wanted a job.
I worked for Crothalls too after school, most notably cleaning the Medical School Museum, which was full of scary exhibits (body parts and dissected bodies). No-one else would do it. But I was fascinated.
I did lots of cleaning jobs that were really hard and dirty work, as Rick has described. The most important thing I noticed is that if you’re a cleaner, you’re generally invisible. It’s essential work, but you generally do it late at night, or early in the morning, when no-one’s around. For the majority of the population, they don’t notice. Though they would if the cleaning stopped.
I went outside to talk to the cleaners today on the Parliamentary forecourt. They are good, decent people who are trying to earn a living and pay their bills. They start work at midnight and work through the night. They have to drive to work because there’s no public transport.
I believe that all work is valuable. Cleaning is essential. Our cleaners deserve better pay and conditions.
The cleaners have right on their side
Posted by Rick Barker on February 17th, 2010Parliament’s cleaners are taking industrial action and good on them. They shouldn’t have to, they work hard during antisocial hours late at night, they deserve more than the minimum wage of $12.55 an hour. They arrive about mid night and commence the onerous task of cleaning up the mess left by all who visited and work here.
Cleaners have a tough job, make no mistake about that. People are generally tidier at home where they have their family to keep them in check, sadly often the standards slip when they are at work.
Having worked as a cleaner for four years to put myself through school I have first hand experience of cleaning in hospitals, government and commercial buildings and can vouch for the poor pay for the work done, often filthy work.
Of the many disgusting messes I was confronted with one will suffice to make the point; the men’s toilet at one place always had a soiled pan, always the same one in the line, which had hardened onto the back of the bowl evidence of the individuals handiwork. It took at least half an hour per day to clean from the two hours for cleaning the whole building. Everyday it was the same. It can not have gone unnoticed by the person concerned.
Frustrated by being paid for 2 hours and working 2 and a half I left a note saying ‘would the person who lives on a diet of black liquorice and glue aim for the water not the bowl, please, the cleaner.’ It worked. Every cleaner will have similar stories of just how messy and inconsiderate people can be.
Short hours are another hazard for cleaners. Crothall’s, my employer at the time suffered a dip in profits and responded by cutting all our hours in half for every job, regardless of the work to be done. We cleaners were all living on the edge, these cuts if given effect to would have been devastating. At 17 and still at school I organised my first strike for the reinstatement of the hours. We won most back but lost some. We won the ability to shuffle the hours around to support those most in need.
The third hazard for a cleaner is the pay, universally bad, but need not be. When I started, bad as the pay was, it was well ahead of the minimum wage. Regrettably today, the minimum wage has too often become the maximum wage for cleaners.
Parliament is not a place that can credibly claim poverty with an inability to pay. Selected MPs have received a substantial increase in their support budgets for their electorate work. The there is the obvious of the increase for a certain MPs house rental that was cut back, not because there was no money, but because of public outrage.
The public would support cleaners being paid more than $12.55 an hour for cleaning up Parliament and working from midnight to the small hours of the morning.
If anyone disagrees I am sure a job swap can be arranged. A month or more on 12.55 an hour will be a reality check for anyone.
I am for the cleaners, the hours are short, the work is tough and the pay is bad.
Credits for kids
Posted by Trevor Mallard on February 17th, 2010Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s I used to sometimes do the wages for the family firm.
In those days there were tax table books to help calculate the deductions – pretty simple really.
People had either a S(ingle) or a M(arried) code. And then a number relating to the number of dependant children. So if you were a two adult one income family with three kids your code was M3.
And you had less tax deducted than someone who was S or even M2.
Back in those days there was widespread acceptance of the principle that kids were good and the state had a role in making a contribution (through reduced taxation) to the extra costs involved. I think we have lost that to some extent since then. And that is not good.
In recent years an unnecessarily complicated system has developed – probably because IRD were capable but reluctant and WINZ (read Rankin) were willing but not capable. So we got WFF. No problem with the results but too much form filling and expensive to run. Yes partly my fault.
The answer in my view is the bringing together of the IRD and WINZ computer systems. Helps stop cheats. Means people don’t get left with bills.
Much easier to do than a decade ago.
And for some workers their tax will involve a credit or addition to their weekly pay to recognise the cost of their kids.
Whats wrong with that?
Tariana’s BMW or Katene’s principles
Posted by Trevor Mallard on February 10th, 2010Today in the house Rahui Katene was pretending to oppose an increase in GST because of what it would do to Maori families.
Tariana didn’t like it when we pointed out that she would lose her car if the Maori Party voted with their rhetoric.
My money is on the Maori Party voting for the increase and Tari keeping her car.
ps it was interesting to see how unhappy Hone was when Tari shut Rahui down.
Phil Goff’s Speech: The Many Not the Few
Posted by Grant Robertson on January 28th, 2010
I’m in Hamilton for Phil’s speech. A full house of about 200 people are currently listening to a passionate speech from Phil about the importance of spreading the benefits of the recovery to all New Zealanders. He has made a couple specific policy commitments to introduce the bill to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour and to cap the salaries of public sector Chief Executives at the level of the PMs salary (around $400,000). Chief Executive salaries have grown at twice the rate of inflation since 1997, while rank and file workers have only just kept pace with inflation.
Lots more in the speech, well worth a read.
Announcements coming today
Posted by Trevor Mallard on January 27th, 2010Two on the minimum wage – the National Party on their April fools day increase (I pick $13.00) and Labour on a bill to take it to $15.
