In very bad news for the Government former National MP Marilyn Waring has announced that she will be doing something the Government did not do, organise hearings to consider the Government’s sabotaging of Pay Equity.
Louisa Wall eviscerates Government claims about pay equity.
When the history of the sixth National Government is written I am confident that the events of this week when the Pay Equity system was smashed up will be described as the the beginning of the end.
In what looked like an early election campaign launch Winston Peters has done his old man shaking his fist at the sky tirade against everything woke.
Nicola Willis is picking a fight with unions and environmental groups by proposing changes to Government procurement rules that would do away with environmentally beneficial policies and the requirement to pay the living wage.
A fascinating expose from Michael Hudson on the causes and implications of the recent rise in the price of gold. When Nixon took the US dollar off the standard in 1971 you could get an ounce for $35. Not now; Hudson explains why.
What is the lowest most disgraceful thing this Government has done? How about cutting funding for top ups of the wages of disabled workers aimed to get them to the living wage?
The Remuneration Authority has announced that MPs will be getting a 10% increase in their salaries during the course of this Parliament.
Uber Drivers are in the Court of Appeal today. Uber is appealing against Employment Court decision they they are employees with worker rights. Its a no-brainer, so they are and should have them.
National has this week chosen to smash through under urgency legislation that will increase unemployment and interest rates, reduce workers wages and increase the country’s emissions of greenhouse gasses.
My initial impression was that the person who leaked the Fair Pay Cabinet Paper to the media was probably a disgruntled Public Servant but was it?
The Cabinet Paper dealing with the Government’s proposal to do away with fair pay agreements has hit the media. And the advice suggests that Cabinet is completely disinterested in the on the ground reality of what their shitty policy will do to ordinary Kiwis.
National Deputy Leader Nicola Willis said yesterday that it was a great shame that the minimum wage had increased by so much because it means the Government can’t do it now to help low-income Kiwis make ends meet without stoking inflation.
2023 is going to hit New Zealanders hard. Since the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes New Zealand has been beset by a new major crisis about once every two years. 2022 was our year off and get ready we are in for a strange and hard recession.
Energy costs, supply line issues, worker rights.
BusinessNZ’s attempt to put New Zealand on the ILO naughty list because of fair pay agreements has failed.
Jack Tame’s interview of Chris Luxon on Q&A suggests that the post leadership change honeymoon may now be over and that Luxon does not really understand how difficult a job being Prime Minister would be.
It sounds like the Industrial and Trades sector of the economy has had a significiant wage rise over the last year. While we wait for the wages stats data, this is an interesting indicator. The national median hourly pay in the sector is now $27 an hour, up $2 from 2020/21. But this isn’t just here, the world labour market is shifting just as the supply chains are.
BusinessNZ and Federated Farmers have this week attacked the Government for intending to implement policy designed to improve the plight of poorly paid workers.
Rather than economics, can we talk about the values that underlie how we manage the country?
Outrage at suggestions that nurses, teachers, social workers, and doctors were not worthy of a pay rise this year has been swift.
Some good news from yesterday. The Government has decided to walk back earlier comments suggesting a wage freeze for teachers and nurses.
Yesterday Minister of Labour Michael Wood led the announcement of a policy that conceivably could do more to address the decline in workers wages and conditions over the past 40 years than anything else tried recently.
Mindboggling.
Consistent with how they’ve governed so far, Ardern and Robertson are happy to demand workers sacrifice for the greater good — but asking the rich to do the same is a red line they simply won’t cross.
A few of us on the left have issues with the public service wage freeze announced yesterday. By setting the salary level so low, at $60,000 per annum, the threat is that previous gains for teachers and nurses will be undermined.
Yesterday was a day where National focussed on dog whistle racism, supported religious extremists and moaned about workers receiving a modest increase in the minimum wage.
Expecting a bit much aren’t you? We haven’t had that since Muldoon. At least he had them. The kind of people now asking for a plan were those who complained about governments that “interfered with the sacred ‘free market’” and screamed about “central planning”, “picking winners”, “protectionism” etc. They prefer just getting cheap labour to give the illusion of economic growth. And build a cycleway!
Not a vague let’s raise wages and benefits explanation, but an in-depth, number crunching, evidence-driven explanation. Where is it?
This is a backpocket election – and that’s where most of Labour’s effort is going as it rightly should.
The Green Party welcome Labour’s commitment to extend the living wage to Government contractors, but will push for Fair Pay Agreements across industries in the next Government so more New Zealanders can earn a dignified income.
On the day of the council vote, we organised for the effected Citi-Ops workers to sit in the public gallery in the Council rooms wearing their High Viz’s and work gear. I was one of three speakers for the union, expressing opposition to axing these jobs. The Council debated the issue for about 30 minutes. Those councillors in favour of making the workers redundant argued that they should not interfere with management decisions. Those against the decision felt that management did not have the mandate to make this decision. The vote ended up being 7-7, so Green Party Mayor Celia Wade-Brown used her casting vote to uphold management’s decision to outsource these workers jobs. The Citi Operations staff were sitting in the room, so Celia and the councillors were looking at these workers as they made them redundant.
Sure to form, Paul Swain along with Regional Council Chair and another former Labour MP Fran Wilde proposed tearing down the trolleybus wire and increasing the city’s carbon emission. This was to then promptly followed by re-tendering all the bus routes having redesigned all the bus network so that bus companies could then compete over routes and undercut each other. At one council meeting in mid-2016 Swain was questioned about the possibility of protecting drivers jobs and employment conditions. After a few questions, he lost patience, slammed in hand on the table and ended the meeting. This was the extent to which Swain and the Greater Wellington Regional Council considered supporting bus drivers during this process.
National’s new job-creation scheme appears to be inconsistent with their desire to fully re-instate the 90-day trial period.
Low-wage essential workers are getting New Zealand through this crisis and continue to do so. They went to work when the rest of us were told to stay away – and people would be horrified to hear many of them barely earn enough to live on.
A Guest blog from E tū Assistant National Secretary, Annie Newman. “Democracy creates a space for the market, civil society and the government but it doesn’t guarantee a balance between these spheres. That is government’s role. Right now, there is an opportunity for our government to do more than protect the future of business; it can address the imbalance in our democracy where the market dominates the agenda.”
