Reflections on Shawn Tan
There’s a lot of heat but not much light in the debate about the EPMU’s suspension of Shawn Tan. What we know from […]
Economy
workers’ rights
Did you say “wages”, John?
Watching Key on Breakfast this morning I was surprised to see him talking about the need for higher wages (about two thirds of […]
Academic, youse are paid too much
Professor John Gibson from Waikato University says public servants should be paid less because they get paid more than their private sector equivalents […]
Unemployment to 3.9%
Unemployment rose again last quarter but remains under 4%. It has now been under 4% for 16 of the last 17 quarters. Interestingly, […]
Employment, wages up
Despite the economic slowdown, the labour market is holding up well and wages are up at the record rate. The average hourly wage […]
Workers stand up for their rights, Nats still evasive
The EPMU launched its ‘Work Rights Wage Drive’ today with a rally in Christchurch. Despite the rain, over 1500 Kiwi workers turned out […]
Lucky Aussies, they kept their work rights
Some of our friends on the Right have been putting themselves through strange mental contortions over the recent series of posts we’ve had […]
90 Day no rights makes no sense
The National party may prefer not to have their policy examined in great detail, but in today’s Herald Nigel Haworth, professor of human resource development at […]
EPMU cleared to campaign
The Electoral Commission has decided the EPMU can register as a third party under the Electoral Finance Act despite the National Party spending […]
Electoral Finance Act victory for free speech
The Electoral Commission has ruled that several unions affiliated to the Labour Party are able to register as third parties under the Electoral […]
Larger slice of the cake for workers under Labour
The essential debate in New Zealand politics (and all capitalist economies) is between Right and Left over how big a share of the […]
Does anyone care about the gender wage gap?
I recently caught a story on the radio about the gender wage gap of new graduates – and in the failed search to locate […]
CTU critiques National’s employment policy
Last week the Council of Trade Unions issued a devastating point-by-point critique of National’s ACC policy. Now they’ve followed up with an excellent […]
Fact: The Left has risen wages during its time in power
Inevitably, reaction from some to the post showing incomes fell 6.1% under National between 1990 and 1997 has not been horror at the […]
Fact: Nats cut wages last time they were in power
For anyone who still doesn’t want to believe that National cut incomes for most Kiwis last time they were in power (and would […]
Will the real National policy please stand up?
A reader noticed a difference between National’s workplace policy as quoted by us and as quoted elsewhere. We and some others have: “Continue […]
Seeking better work rights
Seek has released analysis of the pay-rates offered by employers advertising on its site. It’s not a perfect measure and the figures are […]
Reaction roundup: Nats’ work rights policy
Democratic, voluntary organisations of workers: Finsec: “Within the current framework, many workers have been able to achieve real wage increases like the 5% […]
Pride in your work
Some of our rightwing commentators are rejecting the argument that National’s ‘workplace policy’ strips workers of their rights. Problem is, every workers’ rights […]
Take the money and run
I just read Gordon Campbell’s latest Scoop column about the omnibus tax bill and quickly followed it with Frog’s piece on the matter […]
Between the lines: Nats’ work rights policy
You know you’re in for a treat when a political party’s ‘policy’ (I still refuse to consider half a dozen bullet points a […]
EMA Kiwisaver campaign in breach of EFA?
The Employers and Manufacturers Association’s advertising campaign to defend the ability of employers to make workers pay their own Kiwisaver employer contribution while […]
Previewing National’s employment policy
Word around the traps is that National is going to be releasing its industrial relations policy this afternoon. My prediction is the policy […]
Would Nats introduce work-for-the-dole?
Judith Collins, who has made it her mission in life to attack benefits at every turn, has been meeting with Mission Australia, the […]
False idol
We’ve said this before but, seeing as BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander is in the Herald this morning saying ‘the October 1 tax […]
Nats unable to justify ACC policy
Unlike some of our counterparts, the Standardistas aren’t into vanity posts. So, in this clip from TVNZ7’s Back Benches on Wednesday, ignore who’s […]
PSA rips Bagrie report
Good piece in the Herald yesterday (and the Dom Post the day before) from PSA national sec Richard Wagstaff critiquing ANZ National chief […]
Nats’ ACC policy all about ideology
National’s ACC privatisation policy is another of its one page wonders (this time with three page backgrounder skimming the history of ACC and […]
Not ready for prime time
John Key tries to reassure us that National’s policy to privatise ACC would keep the scheme’s principles intact. Here’s how he defined those […]
CTU rips Nats’ ACC policy
The Council of Trade Unions has put out a detailed, devastating critique of each of National’s arguments for privatising ACC. I’ve copied it […]
ACC and the rhetoric of ‘choice’
National says its ACC policy will provide ‘choice’ on accident compensation, but choice for who? Employers will be able to choose between a […]
Previewing the Nats’ work rights policy
The biggest protests during this term of Parliament were against National’s 90 Day Bill when it came up as a private members’ bill. […]
Nats’ ACC plan only good for insurance companies and lawyers
National has confirmed it intends to privatise the ACC scheme starting with opening the work account to private competition. This would see private […]
Key comes out against wage increases
This morning on Sunrise, John Key said “wage inflation” is a problem causing inflation and needs to be reduced. Wage inflation is a […]
90 Day No Rights policy, why?
Why does National want to remove the right of workers to appeal against unjustifiable dismissal in the first 90 days of employment? The […]
More anti-worker policy from the Nats
On Sunday, Bill English let slip that National still intends to take away the work rights of employees of small businesses for the […]