Chart o’ the day: fire at will
Fire at will was meant to help young people into work, wasn’t it?
Economy
workers’ rights
Nats planning to drive down our wages further
National’s election plan is becoming clear. They are going to put a lot of nasty stuff on the table and trust that people love Key’s smiling face so much they will still vote National. If they win, they will take it as a mandate to do everything they’ve said, and more. The latest election policy is more attacks on our work rights.
Better economic info
The CTU’s Economic Bulletin: The 2011 Budget was a victory of story-line over needs… The Budget has no plan to put right New Zealand’s social and economic imbalances, and does little to start cutting back the overseas private debt… The Budget of a thousand cuts put debt and deficits ahead of people’s needs and a plan for the future.
CTU research on minimum wage
The response to two recent posts here at The Standard have shown what a contentious topic the minimum wage is. So it’s timely that yesterday saw the release of the CTU’s summary of research on Minimum Wage and Jobs.
How’s this for employment conditions?
Here’s a stunning headline from the Herald on the glamour of working at SkyCity casino:
Flea collars for SkyCity staff
Perhaps next they could introduce compulsory de-lousing baths at the end of each shift?
Choosing to be poor
Prominent scientist Sir Paul Callaghan thinks Kiwis are choosing to be poor. I reckon he’s right too, but we probably disagree about the reasons.
Budget Protest at Parliament today
Unions and community groups don’t need to wait till after the Budget is read to know they’ve been screwed. They’re gathering today at […]
Some facts on Wages, Inflation and GDP
John Key at a press conference yesterday made some claims about wages, inflation and Treasury predictions that really need looking at a bit more closely.
Some are more equal than others
As we wait to see just how bad the economy has got under National, and what cuts they will force on us to pay for their follies, Michael Bott’s reports on canvassing in Masterton: “I spent a weekend with a team of Labour volunteers listening to the concerns of the people. A repeated remark was, ‘‘ no matter how hard I try, I just can’t get ahead’’”
This brighter future
Cleaning up after the royals
Buckingham Palace cleaners aren’t even paid the London living wage while the British taxpayer will have to pay for the royal wedding cleanup. That’s one reason why I’m a republican. The Globe and Mail reports: “The cost of cleaning the streets of Westminster the day before the wedding is estimated by the council at $83,000.”
Better off with National?
National is making most New Zealand households worse off – 5.3% worse off after 2 years, and it’ll be even worse once the 3rd year’s data is out. As the wage gap with Australia grows, this government is failing its “fundamental purpose”.
Footnote: legal aid.
Evidence-based policy
From the Dunedin Study, to The Spirit Level, to the IPCC – there is a lot of evidence out there that our government should be basing their policy on. Let’s champion that aim.
No ambition for New Zealand
National came to power promising to close the wage gap with Australia. Not only have they failed to fulfill that promise but Bill English now portrays it as a good thing. His appearance on Q+A yesterday only confirms how out of touch National is: determined to sell our assets for no good reason, against our will, and happy with our low wages.
English: gap with Aussie good
Bill English has given up any pretense of closing the gap with Australia by 2025. Now, he is claiming the wage gap is a good thing and admitting higher productivity isn’t the cause of the wage gap. Meanwhile, Fran O’Sullivan slams Key and English’s ‘fingers crossed’ approach to handling financial crises.
Things Just Got Tougher
The CTU is launching a new campaign today as part of their ongoing Fairness At Work. Things Just Got Tougher is about the new employment laws that start today, April 1.
Sick April Fool’s Joke
Today National has a terrible April Fools for workers around Aotearoa: 90 day fire-at-will, reduced union access, sick notes after 1 day and minimum wage up a pittance. Workers are doing it tough already, and now National’s turning the screw.
Fact checking Key
According to Scoop, the PM is telling porkies about the average income of New Zealanders. On behalf of the various authors here at The Standard I’d just like to say, well, gosh! — imagine our surprise.
Re-run: Unemployment up, productivity up
As I predicted in this post last year, productivity has risen sharply in the latest stats but for all the wrong reasons.The Herald gushes “NZ employers squeeze more out of fewer workers” but that’s fundamentally wrong. We’re getting less out of even fewer workers. “Labour input” fell 4.3%, while GDP fell 0.8%. Why anyone would think this is a Good Thing is beyond me.
How to put half a billion into working families’ pockets
I/S at No Right Turn has done more excellent work. He’s revealed the official advice Kate Wilkinson was given on the minimum wage. The advice says there is a trade-off between jobs and the minimum wage, but even a rise to $15 an hour would cause an increase wages for low-income earners well above the cost in jobs.
Farrar fluffs food figures
I thought that with a devastating earthquake, a record oil/food price spike, an unemployment tsunami, and a double-dip recession that the Nats’ apologists might have realised it was time for honest discussion of the issues and solutions. Instead, they’re still trying to bury our heads in the sand.
Unemployment tsunami hits Chch
3065 people have already claimed the special benefit for people left unemployed due to the Christchurch earthquake. Once that payment expires in a […]
Protest @ WINZ today!
Aucklanders – the fight back against the worst recommendations in the Rebstock report starts now. Join us – Auckland Against Poverty – in a picket, 2pm today outside Work & Income, Sel Peacock Dr, Henderson.
Key’s “unpopular concessions”
With the TPP being negotiated in secret today the signs from John Key are that he’s planning to sell us down the river.
But given the way he sold out our work rights to Warner Brothers we shouldn’t be surprised.
Sleeper issue
Overnight carers have won the right to be paid at least the minimum wage for time when they are not working and free to sleep, as well as when they need to provide care to their charges in the middle of the night. In reaction, National appears set to legislate away the basic right that when you’re at work you get minimum wage.
Whitcoulls
Whitcoulls has been here since forever — “one of New Zealand’s most famous and enduring retail chains”. But the chain is in big trouble, and it’s sad to watch the ongoing wreck. Let’s hope that Whitcoulls can be saved before hundreds more workers and families in NZ lose their livelihood to the moribund economy.
Compare and contrast
Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn compares the bailout of SCF investors with the Nats’ threat to change the law to deny some workers the minimum wage.
Community Max, another Nat failure
Because it’s failed ideology prevents it from leading job creation, National came up with ‘Community Max’. Pointless make work schemes have flourished. At the end, more participants are back on the dole than would have been if they had never left. A waste of time and money. Just like boot camps with a higher reoffending rate than home detention.
Why Revolutions Stumble and Fall
Democracy doesn’t suddenly magically appear as though from a conjurers hat. We know that, right? So why are revolutions seeking democracy D.O.A?
Actors’ Inequity
Another piece of union-bashing has been quietly implemented. Before, when bringing in foreign actors, the burden of proof lay on the production company to prove the talent they were importing was truly required. Now, no proof is required. This undermines Kiwi actors and their unions. It’s all about punishing Actors’ Equity for the Hobbit fiasco.
Govt is not there to make your life better – Bennett
The nice thing about David Bennett is he says what other Nats are smart enough to keep quiet. Remember his rant against the minimum wage? But he out did himself with his speech defending the appalling record of the National government. It turns out the brighter future Key promised was a lie – the National government “is not there to make your life better”.
National fiddles as NZ burns
8,000 more unemployed in Q4 2010, and 1,000 more on the dole in January; New Zealand headed to a douple-dip recession after a year of anaemic growth; an average wage rise in 2010 of 1.9% with inflation of 4%. And a government focussed on manipulating statistics instead of coming up with an economic plan.
Key’s long-term unemployment record
John Key has taken a swing at Kiwi workers who have lost their jobs thanks to the bankers’ recession and his economic mis-management. Key claims people are choosing to be long-term beneficiaries “even though work is available to them”. But the jobs aren’t there and that has caused long-term unemployment to explode under his watch.
Key tries bad stats to mask pathetic record
In his speech yesterday, John Key made the extraordinary claim that the real average wage has risen 10% under his rule. That figure is wrong and the measure is the wrong one to use. But there’s a more fundamental check: look around you, is the average family 10% better off than 2 years ago? Who are you going to believe? Key or your own eyes?
The productivity lie
The Nats have upped the minimum wage by 25 cents. An increase of 1.9% that doesn’t even keep up with inflation of 4% and is thus a minimum wage cut. On cue a tame economist opines that wage growth can only happen if we achieve productivity growth first. The only problem with this excuse is that over the last several decades productivity has grown significantly, and wages haven’t followed…
25c slap in the face
So John Key thinks that a 1.9% increase in pay will cover 4% inflation, and that’s all minimum wage workers are going to get. That 25c/hour won’t add up to a litre of milk at the end of the day, let along a block of cheese at the end of the week. A person on minimum wage will now get $437.24/week after tax, whilst JK gave himself over $1000 extra per week in tax cut.