PARLIAMENT | PARTY | GRASSROOTS

Red Alert

Posts Tagged ‘workers issues’

Fairness @ Work under National?

Posted by Sue Moroney on November 4th, 2009

Thank goodness I don’t have a fragile ego (if I have one at all). In the past two weeks, the Nats have block-voted against hearing submissions on a petition I championed signed by nearly 16,000 other New Zealanders and they have also introduced a Bill reducing the right for all NZ workers to have a meal break – undoing legislation passed under Labour, based on a members’ bill I drafted.

But this posting is not about my ego, because that’s not the reason I’m am MP (can’t speak for others). I’m not taking it personally. After all “its not about me.”

It is about the thousands of school support staff, social workers and other ordinary fair-minded New Zealanders who the National Government took deliberate action against by block-voting to ensure they didn’t have to justify the axing of pay equity investigations for these hard-working New Zealanders.

And it is about workers who’s health and safety will be put at risk if National goes ahead with its plans to give employers the specific right to require workers to attend to their duties during their meal breaks and rest periods.

It is highly unusual for a select committee to refuse to hear submissions on a petition – particularly one of that size. However, the Nats were prepared to sacrifice the democratic principles of select committee procedures so that they weren’t put in the embarrassing position of having to defend the indefensible.

The Minister of Labour has already admitted that the Pay and Employment Equity Unit was closed down by her against the advice of her Department of Labour officials. Maybe the Nats blocked the hearing of submissions on the petition because they were worried about what the DOL would say in its submission?

Whatever the reason, David Bennett, Jackie Blue, Tau Henare, Allan Peachey and Michael Woodhouse should hang their heads in shame as the MPs who voted to block submissions being heard.

I bet none of them admit to having prevented the petition from being heard the next time the turn up at their local schools for a visit.

As for the right to a meal break at work, I don’t know about you but when I’m flying, I wanna know that the person in the sole-charge regional control tower is well-rested, alert, hydrated and has reasonable blood-sugar levels when they are giving important information to the pilot of my plane.

The Nats though, are passing legislation to ensure that they have to work through meal and rest breaks and in the process are subjecting all other NZ workers to the same possibility.

Not the brighter future they promised really, is it?

Tags: , , , ,
Filed under: Pay Equity, Uncategorized, democracy, education, human rights, labour, legislation, national, select committee
10 Comments

Whenever we think it’s bad…

Posted by Darien Fenton on November 3rd, 2009

3951175816_dcc7a4cfda

A Bangladeshi boy works in a shipbuilding factory in down town. These factories employ young boys as apprentices without pay for the first few years. They work in extreme conditions without safety tools like gloves, goggles, and other protective gear. In exchange, they learn the skills of the trade. But this costs them loss of health and education.

We should remember that there’s a whole other world of exploitation and abuse of workers out there. This in from the LabourStart photo competition: K M Asad’s “Manual Labour”.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight on our own home turf for a better life for Kiwis, at work, at home and in their communities. But it does mean that we have some responsibility to fight for others as well.

I was at the ILO in Geneva in 1998 when the Child Labour Convention was passed. The Global March against child labour travelled over 80,000 kms through 62 countries, with a core group of marchers, rescued from mines, sweatshops and servitude.  They carried the message that the time has come to guarantee every child their childhood, that no child should lose their chance to learn and develop to work all day long. The march was led into the UN by 11 year old Basudev Bhattarai, a former domestic servant from Nepal.

Eleven years on, I’m horrified by this picture, but thanks to Labour Start for reminding us that child labour is still a black spot on the face of humanity.

Tags: ,
Filed under: Uncategorized
17 Comments

Finlayson on mealbreaks

Posted by Trevor Mallard on October 28th, 2009

Wilkinson wasn’t in the House today so Finlayson answered. I don’t know what the Chief Justice saw in him. He is [deleted after careful consideration - Clare]

He totally misrepresented the current legislation. Failed to mention that the air traffic excuse for this shocking bill was solved using the amendments passed under Labour last year.

Here is what he said, and what it means I think is that it is the intention of the government to force the bill through before Christmas with no Select Committee:

11. Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour-Hutt South) to the Minister of Labour: What has happened since compulsory rest and meal breaks for employees came into effect this year, which has led to her proposing changes to that legislation?

Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Acting Minister of Labour): From complaints received by the Minister it has become clear, if it was not already, that not everyone has a cup of tea at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and stops for lunch precisely at 1 p.m., except possibly Parliament when it is in urgency and, on most occasions, the courts. The changes are aimed at ensuring flexibility in the workplace by allowing employers and employees to time their breaks in a way that does not disrupt their work. The Government does not believe it should restrict the rights of employees to ask their employer if they can skip afternoon tea and go home a little earlier than usual in order to pick up their children from sports practice.

(more…)

Tags: , , ,
Filed under: consultation, democracy, labour, national, parliament, poverty, select committee, union
19 Comments

When a break is not a break

Posted by Darien Fenton on October 27th, 2009

The government tabled its Employment Relations (Meals and Rest Breaks) Amendment Bill in the House today.   I’ve had a brief look at it and what it seems to do is :

  1. Remove the requirement for breaks to be half an hour for a meal break and ten minutes for a tea break and replace it with a requirement to “provide the employee with a reasonable opportunity during the employees work period for rest, refreshment and attending to personal matters”.
  2. Provide that the times and duration of the rest and meal breaks are by agreement.
  3. Provide for “compensatory measures” if the employer doesn’t provide rest breaks.
I’m not going to rush to judgement on this, but I am uneasy about any law that leaves things this wide open.   Labour brought in this law for the workers who weren’t getting breaks at all and I can’t see anything in this amended bill that gives me any comfort that we won’t be reverting to the situation we had before the original bill.  I am even more uneasy when I see that the bill has to receive consent by 30 December.  That means more urgency and no chance for anyone to submit on the bill. 
Tags: , ,
Filed under: labour, legislation
15 Comments

Barbara’s Bike

Posted by Darien Fenton on October 19th, 2009

Barbara is a chef at North Shore Hospital. She’s on low wages, she works shift and she’s helping lead the fight of hospital workers against the current pay freeze.

But the pay freeze Barbara is facing will become a pay cut if Nick Smith has his way. Barbara has a small cc motorbike to get to work. Barbara can’t afford a car, the bike is cheaper than the bus and she needs every penny of her low wages to make ends meet.

But now Nick Smith thinks she should pay a heap more for the privilege of riding her bike to work.

I remember when Barbara bought the bike. It gave her freedom she hadn’t had before. It made a big difference to the hours she spent getting to and from work. It enabled her to go other places as well. She was able to develop her natural ability to lead others, and she now plays an important national voluntary role in her union.

The Biker community is up in arms about the proposed levy increases, particularly on larger bikes and we will see a bike rally heading to parliament from around the country soon.

But I’m worried about how Barbara is going to afford the increased levy and petrol on her little bike. I don’t think National cares, but Labour certainly does.

Tags: ,
Filed under: ACC
15 Comments