Where’s my share?
Had anyone with a job (other than the top 2 tiers of management) had a wage increase higher than inflation recently?
workers' rights
wages
Stop Using the ‘F’ Word.
Because words matter.
Trickledown …
Over in America Republican intellectual genius Paul Ryan tweeted how a School teacher who will receive $1.50 extra per week because of Republican tax cuts was grateful for the increase. But it did not go down well …
NZ Court of Appeal and the Ministry of Health
The government has a responsibility to act fairly, centre its services around the needs of people, and treat NZ citizens as human beings.
Employment Relations changes announced
The Government has announced changes to the Employment Relations law which on the whole are positive and beneficial for workers. But following New Zealand First lobbying the 90 day fire at will provision will be retained for small firms.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership
The positive aspects of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership.
Why President Trump should be opposed by the left
Ten reasons why Donald Trump is anti worker and bad for America’s working class.
Stopping the wage bleed
“You were never going to get rich as a bus driver but you could pay the mortgage or rent, afford a meal out now and then, and make sure your kids had what they needed to do well — hopefully to do better than you.
Competitive contracting has taken that away”
Shane Jones and work for the dole
Shane Jones has muddied a perfectly good job creation policy by talking about work for the dole.
NRT: “Daddy leave” and the parental leave bill
Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn looks at the Paid Parental Leave Bill and how National are trying to wreck it.
Bouquets for the new government
Mining, big data, social investment, paid parental leave, and pēpi in the House. The new government’s not mucking around remedying some of the previous government’s plunder and pillage policies.
NRT: About time too
Idiot/savant writes about Labour’s legislation to extend paid parental leave.
NRT: Good Riddance
“The government is throwing out pay equity legislation introduced by National, saying it makes it harder for people to make a claim for fair wages.”
No Right Turn: Here’s hoping
Julie Anne Genter as the new Minister for Women is likely to revisit a private members bill that would advance pay equity in NZ.
Don Presland obituary
Long time Unionist and Labour supporter Don Presland died last week. Family friend Ad writes about Don’s decades of standing up for workers’ rights and in celebration of the life of a really good man.
Why are we angry about tax and apathetic about low pay?
National’s one and only strategy this election was lying about Labour, specifically Labour’s budget and their tax policy. The $11.7bn hole lie just made the Nats look stupid, but the evidence suggests that the tax lie did real damage. Why are we so angry about tax and so apathetic about the much more important issue of low pay?
SaveMart shows why unions are vital for New Zealand
SaveMart employees were made to sort bales of filthy clothing dumped in Child Cancer charity bins without safety gloves. Unionized workers at New Lynn were sacked for contacting their union about it. Why did it require so much public pressure to get them reinstated? Why are our laws so inadequete?
Equal pay protestors chase the Government out of the Dunedin hospital
They ran away from equal pay.
National – Delivering no pay rises for NZ
Expect plenty of Nat boasting on “the economy” in the election campaign. They’ll be desperate to hide the inconvenient fact that ordinary workers are going backwards.
Equal pay week of action 12 – 20 August
A week of action to support all Kiwis getting a fair go at work.
The truth behind job numbers
Bruce Munro’s excellent piece in the ODT, looks in to the truth behind the Nats’ job numbers: “It does not take much digging in Statistics New Zealand’s latest Household Labour Force Survey to uncover a growing world of low-paid work, insufficient working hours, financial struggles and unfulfilled lives”.
About that pay equity deal
More excellent reporting from Newsroom: “Long overdue pay rate increases affecting 55,000 New Zealand care and support workers kick in on July 1. But the Government’s failure to fully fund the changes is threatening to derail service providers”
Employers don’t like Labour’s new employment relations package
In shocking news, it turns out that employers don’t like Labour’s new employment relations package. They (and the usual suspects) are running lines about a return to the 1970s. A time when workers’ share of the wealth was higher, poverty was lower, inequality was lower, and workers had more rights. Sounds awful.
Labour’s new employment relations package
Labour: “After nine years of National, working people’s share of the economy is falling. Less than 40 per cent of economic growth under National has gone into working people’s wages. If working people’s slice of the economy hadn’t shrunk under National, workers’ pay packets would have been $23 billion larger.”
Greater Wellington Regional Council is harming public transport
The Wellington Regional Council has contracted its bus services but not protected its drivers’ incomes. They stand to lose an average of $200 a week.
And Wellington risks losing the great public transport system it is so proud of.
English on our low wage growth
Bill English knows that our low wage economy is a ticking time-bomb for the government. He must be starting to get worried. The repeated promises of jam tomorrow are well worn out now.
Tipping vs fair wages
I don’t know of a single piece written in support of Bennett’s proposal. She has been in the bubble too long, and lost touch with the values of NZ.
Nats deny women pay equity transparency
As usual National proves itself to be no friend of women. They have voted the Equal Pay Amendment Bill down because they will always choose employers over people.
The case for higher wages
In the warm afterglow of the huge wage increase for health care workers the case for addressing NZ’s creaking low-wage economy is getting some recognition (along with the effect of immigration on wages).
Restaurant Brand Workers strike
Restaurant Brands, the company that made $26 million last year and paid its chief executive a bonus of $1 million but cannot afford to pay its workers any more than the minimum wage, is facing industrial action tomorrow.
National’s short lived status as a supporter of pay equity
The day after Kristine Bartlett’s and the SFWU’s well deserved pay equity victory the Government has released for consultation draft legislation the effect of which would be to stop similar victories occurring in the future.
Why National had to settle the Pay Equity case
National is trying to give the impression that it settled the pay equity case out of the goodness of its heart. The reality is that the Unions forced it to settle through gritted teeth.
Thank you health care workers
This is a huge victory for health care workers, and for women. It is also a huge victory for “resurgent unions”. Will it alarm the private sector? I certainly hope so!
(Kristine Bartlett, photo Herald Mark Mitchell)
Dear Izzy
Married couple, increase after tax $8.36 a fortnight each or $4.18 each a week!!!!! Disposable Income, 0.5971428 each a day !!!! Goes up on April 1st, how the hell did they arrive at this sum?
I find out.
The gender pay gap – grandstanding but no action
A new report has some really interesting findings on the gender pay gap. Paula Bennett engaged in a bit of grandstanding, but it rings completely hollow given National’s history on the issue.
Happy International Women’s Day.
Living wage rises to $20.20 an hour
The living wage rises, and an odd argument for abolishing the minimum wage.