Red Alert

Archive for the ‘minimum wage’ Category

Minimum Wage misery

Posted by Darien Fenton on February 8th, 2012

The government’s announcement today of a 50 cents an hour increase in the minimum wage has left me feeling both relieved and depressed.

I’m relieved because at least the increase is 50 cents an hour, rather than the miserly 25 cents an hour in last year’s minimum wage increase –  even  if it still leaves a minimum wage worker only 20 cents an hour better off in real terms than they were after National’s first minimum wage increase in April 2009.    

But I’m depressed because of another lost opportunity to do something tangible about soaring income inequality in New Zealand.

The government, despite its crocodile tears and phony concern about poverty and the impact on families and children has ignored what would have been a significant step in addressing income inequality.

But I’m relieved that there is almost a majority in parliament for increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, with Labour, the Greens, Maori Party and NZ First all condemning the government’s short sighted decision today.  The only party that stands in the way of that happening is the one man band ACT  Party – whose only comment today has been to criticise the government’s increase in the new entrant and trainee rate to $10.80 an hour. (Sorry, United Future could be a game changer on this, but don’t hold your breath).

Should be an interesting one to watch.


Yellow Ribbons

Posted by Darien Fenton on November 19th, 2011

Today we remember the men and families of Pike River Mine.

Twelve months ago, 29 men went to work in the Pike River Mine and never came home. Their families and community are still waiting for answers. The whole country is.

On the anniversary of their deaths, we join together with the families and the wider West Coast community to commemorate their loss.

Phil Goff says it has been a particularly difficult time for all those affected as they wait to see whether their loved ones can be recovered and it is important that we do everything humanly possible to give them closure.

“I have had the privilege of spending time with some of the families over the past year and I know today will be extremely difficult for them.

“On behalf of Damien O’Connor and all of my Labour colleagues, I would like to pay our respects to all those affected in this time of grief.

“I know the process of the Royal Commission investigating the disaster is a terribly difficult one for all involved. But I hope that it will allow us to learn from what has happened and avoid a tragedy of this nature occurring again.

“On this day, our thoughts and our hearts are with those affected by the terrible loss of the men and the impact it has had on the lives of all those who knew them.”

Two minutes silence at 3.44pm.  Mourn the dead, but together we must resolve to fight for the living so this never happens again.


Courier Drivers – a small business issue

Posted by Darien Fenton on October 9th, 2011

Good piece in the Sunday Star Times today about the reality of working as a Courier Driver.  The impact of cut-throat competition, unfair contracting and a lack of minimum protection for dependent contractors is illustrated well.

Courier drivers are struggling to earn a living wage, with incomes stalled at about the same level as they were 20 years ago, while running costs have exploded. Urgent Couriers’ managing director Steve Bonnici said prices had been slashed due to cut-throat competition, which only intensified during the economic downturn of the past few years. Bonnici said prices have been cut to “ridiculous levels” – and it wasn’t just small, fly-by-night operators doing the cutting. As contractors, drivers had few of the benefits of employees, yet they were still obliged to wear a corporate uniform, work certain hours, apply for annual leave, and work exclusively for one company – as well as providing their own vehicles.

I’ve been on about this for some time now, including calling for SafeRates and better protections for all drivers. My Minimum Wage and Remuneration Bill, which would have provided at least minimum wage protection to these contractors was voted down early in the term of the National Government.

The National government, despite claiming it is the party for small business, has ignored the problems for small business operators like those in the Courier Industry.

“Anecdotal evidence from couriers looking for work indicates some firms are paying less than the minimum wage of $13 an hour. That’s not enough to live on, especially for drivers with families and mortgages”, Bonnici said……

“It’s sad what’s happened to our industry; there are plenty of owner-drivers out there whose revenue before expenses is barely the minimum hourly wage. After they have paid costs out of this revenue they are below the poverty line,” said Paul Holdom, who developed CourierPost Urgent for NZ Post and is now sales manager at Inter City Urgent.

The  industry is now coming around to the view that regulation might work better so that there is protection for small business operators who are totally dependent on one firm for their income.

“Every other industry has the minimum wage. You can’t put an ad in the paper offering employment at $7.50 an hour”, Bonnici says.

I’ve had a lot of contact with courier and other drivers over the last three years. Some of their stories are shocking.

Another piece in today’s SST  gives an insight into what Labour’s policy will include when it is announced on the 18th October.

Karl Anderson, First Union’s representative for transport and logistics in the Northern Region, said legislative protection was coming in Australia and it was the union’s desire to see it here too.

“I don’t think we have a bolter’s show under a Key government, which is ironic, given they say they are the saviours of small businesspeople,” he said.

Sadly, he’s right.


Sleepover bill nearly there

Posted by Darien Fenton on September 27th, 2011

Labour supported the “Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Bill’  tonight to select committee, in a truncated process that will see the bill reported back to the House next week and hopefully finalised.

We’ve been pushing this issue all year and we’re pleased the government has finally reached a settlement with the unions and caregivers.

I want to acknowledge the hard work and commitment of the disability support workers and their unions. I’m delighted that years of a dragged out process, including three court cases and the threat of a Supreme Court case is coming to an end.

I’m particularly pleased that the government has seen sense and not tried to legislate the Court decisions away.

Backpay is coming. It’s well deserved. But having said that, I want to acknowledge the generosity of these workers, who through their unions, are accepting a 50% settlement of backpay and a drawn out process toward being paid minimum wage.

The settlement is great.  But the contribution of the workers is even greater.


Something else happened this week

Posted by Darien Fenton on September 9th, 2011

With all the excitement around the Rugby World Cup it may have slipped your notice that the long battle by Disability Support workers to be paid minimum wage for “sleepover” shifts looks like it might come to an end by Christmas – if the government gets its act together.

The government, IHC and the unions have reached a compromise deal, which will see the full minimum hourly rate paid for sleepovers by December 2012.

50% of the backpay owed will be paid eight weeks after the government legislates, which will need to happen to enable a variation of the Court’s decision and the very reasonable position taken by the unions of enabling the minimum wage to increase over a period of time.

I’m pleased that after a drawn-out process lasting five years and workers jumping through the hoops and appeals in three Courts, Tony Ryall has finally decided to get the matter settled. I’m also intensely relieved that the government has shelved any idea of amending the Minimum Wage Act to avoid these payments. This would have had an impact on tens of thousands of workers.

The only note of concern is that Minister Ryall is saying legislation won’t be passed before the election.  If that happens, there is no trigger for the backpay to be paid and workers will have to wait a lot longer. There’s no reason settlement legislation can’t happen in the next three sitting weeks.

After all, the government managed to ram through significant changes under urgency that removed rights for a whole category of workers so they could please Warner Bros. They can please the nearly 4,000 workers who have made a claim by getting the legislation through the House asap.  Labour will co-operate with the government so these workers can be paid.

Well done to Service & Food Workers Union and PSA for hanging in there.  You’ve done your members proud.


Labour and the miners

Posted by Darien Fenton on August 19th, 2011

Phil Goff got a great reception at the CTU conference this morning.

His speech was inspiring – while it is available on line, you had to be there to really get a sense of how well Labour’s message is going down with workers.

There’s much more to come on savings, skills, jobs, wages and social policy, but today’s announcement was for the miners.

Two days ago, the Minister of Labour announced she was implementing a High Hazards Unit in the Department of Labour which will double from two to four the number of Labour Inspectors in the Mining industry. Everyone is pleased about this, even if it took a lot of pressure to get the Minister to do anything.

But there is more to Mine Safety than having a well-resourced inspectorate. There also need to be strong regulations and worker check inspectors on the job.

Today, Phil announced that we will reinstate check inspectors and model new NZ regulations on Queensland’s mining safety regulations.

Queensland’s regulations are very comprehensive, and the underground section contains provisions for emergencies, rescue and communication, electrical equipment and installations, explosives and explosive power tools, gas monitoring, mechanical, mine design, mining operations, ventilation and working environment. 

Until they were removed by the National government in 1992, check inspectors were democratically-elected miners, responsible solely for the safety of workers with the power, amongst others, to order the immediate withdrawal of miners from a mine or part of a mine that the check inspector deems dangerous. Check inspectors were (and are in Australia) experienced senior miners who have the trust of their fellow workers. Unlike company employed health and safety staff, check inspectors are responsible to the miners, not the company.

This is a great announcement. It was well received today, particularly by the Miner’s Union, the EPMU, who have pushed hard for real change to mine safety in New Zealand.

And before anyone goes there, yes Labour didn’t reverse National’s changes to mine safety. We made significant change to National’s awful Health and Safety laws, but it wasn’t enough. We know that. And that’s why we will do something about it.

The findings of the Royal Commission into the Pike River disaster won’t be released until 2013.  Labour doesn’t believe we should wait until then to take action.


The curious case of the shrinking minimum wage

Posted by Darien Fenton on August 4th, 2011

The minimum wage has declined in real terms by $16.80 a week since June 2010 and in just three months since the tiny 25 cents an hour increase in the minimum wage on 1 April this year, half of its value has already been wiped out.

According to statistics provided by the Parliamentary Library ‘Sam’, the minimum wage worker used as an example by the government to justify last year’s tax switch, has now seen his supposed $6.30 a week October 1 “compensatory” tax cut disappear, even factoring in the 25 cents an hour increase this year.

I wasn’t surprised by the Minister’s answers on this question in the house today. I should have pulled her up on the average wage answer, because it’s absolutely irrelevant to the minimum wage. 

But her answer to my last supplementary was particularly revealing, where she said :

“I can add two and two and it makes four”.

It must be all that lawyer’s training paying off.


Is Kate Wilkinson’s job on the line?

Posted by Darien Fenton on July 19th, 2011

If not, it should be.

Read this story today on the Commission of inquiry into the Pike River Mine tragedy and you will understand why.

This isn’t new evidence.  There have been questions asked of the Minister, both in the House and in Select Committee about the Minister’s rejection of the 2009 recommendations. Both Damien O’Connor and I have tabled letters from her or her department specifically rejecting a regulatory change to introduce check inspectors, and an improved code of practice for employee participation in the mining sector.

The Minister told the Transport & Industrial Relations Select Committee just a couple of weeks ago that one of the recommendations she did take up was improving employee participation in mining health and safety. Yet her department confirmed that two and a half years later, they have yet to begin any work on this.  And this is at the same time, the budget for training workplace health and safety representatives has been slashed.

We also asked the Minister asked about the number of mining inspectors. Turns out there are two; one based in Dunedin, and one based in Westport, and they cover the South Island between them, as well as North Island mines.

I’m not demanding perfection here. Mistakes were made. But the thing to do is own up and ensure they never happen again.

Not our Kate. The Minister is now hiding behind the Commission of Inquiry to refuse to answer direct questions in the House.

That’s not good enough.  If the Minister isn’t prepared to do her job, she should resign and let someone else do it who will put the safety of miners first.


Minister Ryall adds salt to the wounds

Posted by Darien Fenton on July 19th, 2011

Tony Ryall’s reaction to the rejection of the Government’s offer on the “sleepover case” are at best unfortunate and at worst inflammatory.  He said that :

“Because of a legal technicality they are now wanting to be paid the minimum wage for sleeping….. and retrospectively at that.”

Three Courts have determined that  ”sleepovers” are work and entitled to be paid at minimum wage, but apparently Tony Ryall knows better.

He carried on his diatribe by lecturing the unions and the workers about the country borrowing $300 million a week, telling them their claims are unaffordable.

John Ryall, National Secretary of the Service & Food Workers Union describes the “unaffordable” work of these caregivers in this piece in the Dominion Post yesterday.

Overnight, when most New Zealanders are asleep in the comfort of their own homes, these workers provide critical support to members of our communities with intellectual disabilities and mental health issues who live in residential houses. For the staff this may include dealing with challenging behaviour, seizures or vomiting. If they manage to get some sleep, they are on call. It’s demanding, challenging and exhausting work, but our members do it because they care. Their reward is making a difference in the lives of the people they support.

Yet those same disability support workers who are members of the Service and Food Workers Union and PSA receive $34 a sleepover shift of up to nine hours. That’s $3.77 an hour.

The government has offered to pay the minimum wage, but not until 2015.  They’ve offered 25% of the backpay, with Disability Support providers having to find half of the money.

Members of both unions have overwhelmingly rejected the offer and endorsed a union proposal under which workers would receive the minimum wage in six months and half the back pay owed. The unions are being reasonable.  The government is not.

Meanwhile, the Attorney-General has joined IHC in continuing to fight the case in the Court of Appeal.

They’re only putting off the inevitable, but it says a lot about this government’s priorities.


How to win young workers and influence them

Posted by Darien Fenton on June 27th, 2011

The ACT Party had costly advertisements in the weekend newspapers telling young workers that ACT supports them so much that they will cut their wages.

“ACTs solution (to youth unemployment) is simple, cost-effective and unobstrusive. Allow youth rates again. That would provide young people many more opportunities to get their foothold on the job ladder.”

If there are all these jobs out there for young people on low wages, who’s doing them at the moment?  Guess who – workers getting higher pay.

So ACT’s answer to youth unemployment is to take jobs from older workers and give them to young workers on lousy pay – just to do them a favour?

It’s a bit like Paula Bennett telling the House that a young worker of 52 years of age is delighted to have a job as a “checkout chick” when she was asked about a bottom line for youth pay.

Spare me.


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.


What a week

Posted by Darien Fenton on June 24th, 2011

It’s been a full-on week.  So much happening and so many issues : Ministers in Select Committees, long debates in the House on the Telco Bill, announcements in Christchurch, the Te Tai Tokerau by-election and of course dear Alasdair. Here’s a few extra snippets from question time this week that you may not have picked up.

John Key ruled out implementing the Queensland regulatory standards for mine safety as an interim measure despite mouthing off to an Australian newspaper about Pike River and  family members of Pike River miners calling for increased mine inspection.

Paula Bennett repeated that she thinks any job is a good job, citing the example of ayoung woman, who at 52 years of age was proud to be a checkout chick”, while at the same time revealing she’s up to her neck in the government’s revisiting of youth rates.

Annette King asked the PM why he was prepared to wine, dine, chauffeur, change the law and suck up to Warner Bros to save jobs in the movie industry and now the gambling industry, but but has turned his back on hard-working railway workers who can build wagons and carriages in New Zealand and keep their jobs?  Guess what, no answer.

Kate Wilkinson told Jacinda Ardern that the government has a cogent plan, which when probed, said it was basically about building a stronger economy.  Doh.

Nick Smith told us that training workplace health and safety representatives was a “touchy feely notion”, despite his government expressing concerns about NZ’s high workplace deaths and injuries and saying employee participation in health and safety is critical.

Kate Wilkinson said she was aware that for “those people on the minimum wage we are aware budgeting is tight”, but ruled out increasing the minimum wage calling $15 an hour  ”a high minimum wage”.

David Cunliffe asked if the PM thought the public would be pleased to learn that without any mandate, his government has budgeted $6 million to spend before the election on preparing to sell assets.

Oh and I was at a dinner on Monday night where a certain Alasdair Thompson had been invited.  But that’s another story.


Youfs or serfs?

Posted by Darien Fenton on June 17th, 2011

There’s been outrage (and rightly so) today at the TV3 piece last night saying that National was planning a youth rate for 15 – 24 year olds.

In just hours, a Facebook page dedicated to fighting the move has gained more than 1,000 supporters.

It’s not that we haven’t had youth rates before.  National had youth rates for all workers under 20 at 60% of the adult minimum wage until Labour became government in 1999. Did they create jobs?  No.

When Labour became Government in 1999, one of their first moves was to abolish youth rates for 18 and 19 year olds and increase the 16 and 17 year old rate to 80% of the adult minimum wage.

Later on, Sue Bradford’s youth minimum wage bill, which effectively abolished the youth minimum wage for 16 and 17 year olds was passed into law with Labour’s voting power behind it.

But we’ve never had “youth” rates (that I am aware of) for workers over 20.  I suspect that the Minister made a blunder in the TV3 piece last night by saying that youth were “15 – 24 year olds”

15 – 24 is a measure used by the UN, the World Bank and several countries to describe “Youth” as a group eligible for special treatment under the law and in society. In New Zealand, the 15 – 24 year old age group is used to measure “youth” unemployment.  It is also used in things like road accident statistics and a range of other measures. But this doesn’t mean this age group are eligible for discrimination in the way that youth rates discriminate.

Paying someone less because of their age, gender, race or sexuality is discrimination under NZ law. We wouldn’t tolerate older workers being paid less, so why is it different for younger workers?

I suspect that the government is really looking at the 16 – 19 year old group for a return to minimum youth wages.  It’s a way to exploit the competitive advantage of a 30% wage differential with Australia that Bill English says is a good thing.

But this would not only be one step backwards to 16 and 17 year old youth rates, but a giant step backwards to last Century when the National Government had 18 and 19 year olds on 60% of the adult minimum wage.

Cutting wages never creates jobs.  We’ve gone there before and now look what a mess we are in with low wages, an increasing skills gap and some of the longest working hours in the OECD.

I despair.


Take care with polls

Posted by Trevor Mallard on June 10th, 2011

The latest Roy Moran poll is much much better than the last one.

Don’t want to be too much of a wet blanket but the last one was a rogue on the low side. This one is probably the opposite.

It does reinforce that we are game on. And will give floating votets the knowledge that Labour can lead a government this year. But there is a long way to go.

A win depends on lots of hard work and active campaigning.

Talk to ten people about $15/hour today. What difference will it make to their standard of living. How much more tax will they pay? Will they lose WFF ? Will they spend more and help create another job? Will their boss decide to train them some more to make them more productive.


$15 minimum wage rapture

Posted by Darien Fenton on May 23rd, 2011

Harold Camping’s prediction of the rapture dominated the US headlines for the past few days, and, like countless other rapture predictions, proved to be wrong.

Similarly, Phil Goff’s announcement at Congress that Labour will lift the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the first year if we are elected to government in November has already brought out the “it’s the end of the world” cries from the usual suspects and the same old arguments about costing jobs.

There’s research on both sides, most of it now a little dated, but someone drew my attention to this much more recent American study by Ari Dube, a Labour economist and Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts.

It tracks the effect of minimum wage increases over a period of 20 years and looks at differentials across state borders where the minimum wage is higher on one side of the border than the other. The findings are that increasing the minimum wage does not impact on job loss either in the short or long term.

It also found no difference in unemployment because of raised minimum wages during the higher unemployment of the recession.

You won’t be surprised that I am really pleased about Phil Goff’s announcement.

It is a solid promise that will be delivered, unlike John Key’s vague commitments about wages and jobs in his budget, based on dicey Treasury forecasts.  Why anyone would fall for such a lack of substance, I have no idea.

Remember when John Key talked big about 4,000 jobs to come from his cycleway? But oh dear, only 200 have resulted so far.

But expect more end of the world predictions about increasing the minimum wage.

Thankfully, Labour has a whole lot of ideas, some announced at Congress, much more to come.


Any job’s a good job

Posted by Darien Fenton on May 16th, 2011

That’s what Paula Bennett said in reply to my question last week about why Work and Income are advertising illegal jobs on their Find a Job website.

She went on to give the parliament a lecture saying :  

We do not always get to do our dream job. Sometimes we have to work hard, sometimes we have to get a bit stuck in, sometimes we have to prove ourselves to get promoted, and sometimes we have to wash dishes in a rest home for a while, or dig drains. But there are opportunities out there, and that is a great thing.”

Oh yeah?

Yes, the Minister had  ”opportunities”  and she’s been quite happy to pull the ladder up after herself, but I wonder what she would consider a “good job”.

  • Is it a job where the minimum wage isn’t paid, even although it’s unlawful not to do so?
  • Is it a job where health and safety is at risk, and raising it might get you the sack under the 90 days no rights Act?
  • Is it a job where you get paid by the square metre, and lucky, lucky you get to pay  Tax and ACC and have no paid holidays or sick leave?
  • Is it a job where because you are called a contractor, your boss gets to avoid employment law rights, even although clearly your job is dependent?
  • Is it a job where you should just be grateful that someone’s given you a chance and never mind all that namby pamby workers’ rights stuff?
  • Is it a job where the obsession of the ACT party would have a young person under 20 working for $4.20 an hour, like they used to?

Perhaps we should just give up on insisting on decent work, and have everyone working for nothing. Wouldn’t that be a boost to the economy?

You tell me.


Campbell Live – Cost of Living

Posted by Trevor Mallard on May 13th, 2011

The rising cost of living will be a feature of the election campaign. The median real wage has dropped substantially under the National government.


Futile (and desperate?)

Posted by Darien Fenton on May 9th, 2011

As the Parliamentary Term draws to its close, the chances of MPs getting a new members’ bill from the ballot are almost zero.

Tau got a bit of free publicity over Easter by saying he would be putting forward a members’ bill to allow shop trading on Easter Friday. Desperate in Te Atatu?  Sounds like it.

Now Roger Douglas has joined the ACT, with this press release today saying he’s going to resubmit his members’ bill to strip young workers of minimum wages.  His members’ bill on the same topic was roundly defeated last year. Roger’s on his way out, thank goodness, but Don Brash will gladly pick up the mantle.

Problem for Tau and Roger is that there ain’t going to be any more ballots this term of parliament.  Unless, that is, all MPs with members bills up for first readings withdraw them and I can’t see that happening.

Only six Members’ bills awaiting first reading can be on the Order Paper on each Members’ Day.  We have six already, but also in front of those bills are :

  • Local and private orders of the day :  These take precedence, and there are currently two at committee stages, with third readings to come.  There’s likely to be more.
  • Two controversial bills awaiting committee stages and third reading : Voluntary Student Membership Bill (Heather Roy) and Secret Ballots for strike action (Tau Henare).
  • After that, there comes two second readings of NACt MP bills, followed by committee stages, and if they get to it, third readings.

Then, and only then can we begin on the first readings of members’ bills that are already on the Order Paper.

Given that Members’ Days are only held every second sitting week, and the government’s predilection for using Members’ Days for urgency, I can confidently predict there will be absolutely no more ballots for members’ bills this term, including those of Tau Henare and Roger Douglas.

Thank goodness for that.


A Brash reminder on minimum wage and benefits

Posted by Trevor Mallard on May 7th, 2011

Brash on Health 2


Workers Memorial Day

Posted by Darien Fenton on April 28th, 2011

Today (28th April) is International Workers Memorial Day, where we remember the workers killed, injured or made unwell by their work. This is the day where we mourn those who have died and pledge to fight for the living.

I was in Christchurch today at the memorial service, and there were others around the country, including on the West Coast, in another sad remembrance of the 29 miners killed at Pike River Mine last year.

In Christchurch, workers killed and injured were just going about their daily jobs and were the innocent victims of a cataclysmic event.

We can’t say that about Pike River. This was no unavoidable accident and we must know what caused it, how it could be prevented in the future and what a government’s responsibility for that should be. I will be in Blackball on Saturday for another commemoration – where I will have the chance to hear directly from those most affected.

Unfortunately, today Brash’s coup dominates the media, so you won’t read about these memorial events. You won’t hear about the workers who lost their lives last year in workplace accidents, including the Pike River MIners. You won’t hear about the 700 workers who die prematurely from work related illness or disease every year. You won’t hear about the 200,000 workers who suffer serious harm in the workplace each year.

If these were crime statistics, it would be leading the news and the Sensible Sentencing Trust would be calling for blood.

Despite decades of action by unions, workers and pro-worker governments which have resulted in significant improvements to safer working conditions, the toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths in New Zealand workplaces remains too high. Many of these deaths and injuries are easily preventable, but the relentless pursuit of the bottom line costs workers in more than pay and conditions.

Tight economic conditions mean some businesses take shortcuts and workers bear the consequences. Most at risk are those who work on their own account, or as dependent contractors, where the struggle to make ends meet is tougher than it’s been in years. It’s no accident that the construction, fishing, forestry and agriculture industries have a much higher percentage of accidents in New Zealand workplaces.

New Zealand’s history of workplace health and safety also has a legacy we must face up to. The workplace injuries didn’t just happen in the last year. There are hundreds of thousands of workers who suffered injuries on the job in their former working lives. I meet them all the time – the old factory workers, the forestry workers, the labourers, who suffered harm at work as younger men or women, and now are bewildered to find that the support they were receiving from our world-class ACC system has been cut.

Try explaining to someone whose worked hard all of his life, who lost his hearing because of workplace conditions and lack of prevention, that he should no longer qualify for ACC funding to upgrade his fading hearing aid, because Nick Smith has decided his injury is due to “degenerative” conditions.

Today, on Workers Memorial Day, we remember those who have been lost or injured at work. We can only imagine what it is like to say goodbye to a loved one at the beginning of the working day and not have them return at the end. It shouldn’t happen.

It’s a day that we join with others to renew our determination to work together for safer workplaces.

That’s what I’ve been doing today.