Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, December 19th, 2008 - 52 comments
We always said that a National/ACT government would be anti-worker but I’m surprised by how blatant they are being about it. In a series of hasty, secretive laws, they’ve put up taxes on workers, cut their Kiwisaver, and removed their work rights for the first 90 days of employment. Now, they have officially dropped the […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:09 pm, December 18th, 2008 - 42 comments
Matt McCarten, head of the Unite Union, has just released emails showing police informant Rob Gilchrist gave the police spy unit details about activities being organised by the union as part of their push to abolish youth pay rates and increase the minimum wage. ‘These emails give lie to the police claim that only potential […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, December 16th, 2008 - 3 comments
A fundamental of social democratic politics is full employment. It is sometimes said that work is the best form of welfare. When people are in work they have a sense of belonging and self-worth, they commit fewer crimes, they contribute to funding public services, they can afford a better standard of living for their families. […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, December 16th, 2008 - 9 comments
So much for all National’s fine words about probation periods and job creation. Today’s Dominion reports that ReStart will not be available for “those who were sacked, including those who lost their jobs under the new 90-day probation law.” So the conditions for three months “probation” are that you cannot ask for reasons for dismissal […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, December 12th, 2008 - 117 comments
Taken a matter of minutes ago, the Workers Party protest outside John Key’s multimillion dollar Parnell mansion. Just to remind you that we’ve just seen a man worth tens of millions of dollars take work rights off a whole bunch of people who earn minimum wage. In case you’re wondering what they’re holding up, it’s […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, December 12th, 2008 - 43 comments
If you’re still wondering what the Fire at Will Bill (about to become law just over a day after it was first made pubic) is all about take a look at No Right Turn’s analysis. It is a poorly-written and poorly thought-out law. It takes away your right, if you are fired when the first 90 days of working at […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:23 pm, December 11th, 2008 - 79 comments
David Farrar, champion of democracy. We salute you for speaking truth to power, no matter who’s in charge. [Original here]
Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, December 11th, 2008 - 36 comments
Here’s Anne Tolley telling teachers before the election that they would not be covered by the fire at will legislation. Turns out she was lying. Teachers at at least 800 schools nationwide will now have no work rights in their first 90 days on the job. Whatever it takes to win, eh National?
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, December 11th, 2008 - 4 comments
Well, it’s a relief to see that while the Maori Party might have voted to take money out of the pockets of the poor to pay for tax cuts for the rich, they’ve at least held the line on protecting our work rights by rejecting National’s fire at will bill. Pita Sharples hits the nail […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, December 11th, 2008 - 41 comments
We’re told that every country in the OECD except New Zealand and Denmark has a probation period like National/ACT’s Fire at Will law. Apart from being incorrect – we already have provision for probation periods like other countries do, difference is in those countries and under our current law a dismissal can be challenged as unjustified, the […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:54 am, December 11th, 2008 - 16 comments
The National/ACT line in defending pushing through legislation like the Fire at Will Bill under urgency, without any select committee process, without any of the normal procedures for the proposed law to be publicly reviewed, even without tabling the Bill before it is to be voted on, is that the election gave them a mandate […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:25 pm, December 10th, 2008 - 55 comments
The Manawatu Standard has a good op-ed piece today on how National has squandered its honeymoon with its arrogant and out-of-touch behaviour on the fire at will bill. The National party rose to power on the back of, among other things, scathing accusations that a supremely arrogant Labour party had “lost touch” with the people. […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:20 pm, December 10th, 2008 - 11 comments
This viral email from the Council of Trade Unions is doing the rounds. Make sure you click on through and tell John all we want for Christmas is fair work rights: On the twelfth day of Christmas, the Government gave to me… Just days into the new Government and already National has introduced laws which […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:18 pm, December 10th, 2008 - 2 comments
Against the backdrop of tough new employment laws there’re predictions that “35,000 jobs could be lost in the construction sector.” No wonder that there are reports that Kiwis are worried about losing their jobs! A quarter of workers are afraid of losing their jobs, while more than half the workforce is not expecting a pay rise […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, December 9th, 2008 - 23 comments
Kate Wikinson, John Key’s hapless Minister of Labour, has told NZPA the public shouldn’t get to have their say on the fire at will bill because, apparently, we already had our chance with Wayne Mapp’s private member’s bill back in 2006. This argument is complete bollocks, and she knows it. Perhaps that’s why she refused […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, December 9th, 2008 - 22 comments
National has been working hard to push the idea that its fire at will policy introduces a ‘probationary period’ of employment. This is not true. The Employment Relations Act already allows for probationary employment periods, it simply requires that workers are given the right to fair process and natural justice. All National’s proposed legislation would […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, December 9th, 2008 - 34 comments
The Greens have joined in opposing National’s “Fire at Will” Bill which they say puts “jobs and democracy at stake”. They’re calling on the Maori Party to stand strong in its previous opposition to the bill. Only two years ago Hone Harawira said when voting against it: [O]ur journey with this bill has not been an […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:02 pm, December 9th, 2008 - 16 comments
These ads made by the ACTU to oppose John Howard’s removal of unfair dismissal rights sure bring home what National’s fire at will law will mean for working families. No wonder National wants to curtail any real debate by ramming it through under urgency. Part two is here.
Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, December 9th, 2008 - 51 comments
I’ve just been informed that the National/ACT Government has put its 90 day fire at will bill on the Order Paper and could ram it through under urgency as early as tomorrow. This is frankly an astonishing abuse of our democracy. A piece of legislation that will remove basic work rights from hundreds of thousands […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, December 9th, 2008 - 17 comments
Word is National’s David Bennett will be chairing the Transport & Industrial Relations select committee. After his unhinged performance over the youth minimum wage bill (audio below) where he screamed that the bill was “communism” and that we need to protect our hierarchical society, I’m not surprised John Key doesn’t want to send the 90 […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, December 9th, 2008 - 40 comments
Tracy Watkins reports that the National/Act government will be taking all work rights from anyone in a new job in a firm with 20 staff or less and they’re going to do it under urgency. I’ve heard that the question of whether to proceed with the bill under urgency was still being hotly debated within […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:38 pm, December 8th, 2008 - 50 comments
During this morning’s Nine to Noon politics segment Matthew Hooton was saying how he thought the Government’s 100-day action plan would only include policies signalled prior to the election when he let slip: “And I’m sure while there will be some complaints about one measure… er… some measures…” I wonder what that one unpopular measure […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, December 8th, 2008 - 34 comments
Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis describe in the New Statesman how: [a]lmost entirely under the media radar, workers in Argentina have been responding to rampant unemployment and capital flight by taking over businesses that have gone bankrupt and reopening them under democratic worker management. Full article here.
Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, December 5th, 2008 - 38 comments
It’s good to see Treasury’s extreme right-wing prescription for New Zealand has not been wholly embraced by the National Party – and it’s easy to see why. While Bill English (a former Treasury wonk himself) no doubt agrees with the policy ideas and direction outlined by Treasury, he has the disadvantage of being accountable to […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:36 pm, December 4th, 2008 - 74 comments
The Herald continues its campaigning today with a puff piece about a poll that claims business wants National’s 90 day ‘fire at will‘ policy enacted as soon as possible. The policy would remove the right of any worker in a small business to appeal against unfair dismissal during their first 90 days in a new […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, November 24th, 2008 - 48 comments
Watching this new ad from the Australian Council of Trade Unions on employment law reform was kind of depressing – while the Aussies are looking forward to getting their work rights back under a new government, ours is drafting up legislation to take them away. Time for a change eh? Guess we should have read […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:26 pm, November 24th, 2008 - 33 comments
I was talking to a friend the other night. Her job is disappearing. Fortunately, she is getting a decent-sized redundancy payment. I asked if she is a member of the union. ‘No, why would I be?’ Well, you only get that redundancy payment because the union won it in negotiations. ‘But I’m on an individual […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, November 21st, 2008 - 33 comments
Workers from Farmers stores in the Auckland area will take part in a ‘Skinny Santa’ parade down Queen Street today to protest against their low rates of pay and for a $15 minimum wage. Most Farmers staff are only paid between $12 and $13.50 an hour and the company’s latest pay offer would give the […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:04 pm, November 19th, 2008 - 30 comments
It’s exam season for high school students. So, for 10 points explain how the following statement (in the ACT-National agreement and repeated uncritically by the media) can be true, closing the income gap with Australia by 2025… will require a sustained lift in New Zealand’s productivity growth to 3 per cent a year. given: – […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, November 17th, 2008 - 24 comments
Well, just days after a high profile meeting with PSA head Brenda Pilott and a promise to engage with unions John Key has decided to exclude the PSA from his Task Force on the future of the public sector. The National/ACT government will instead appoint private sector consultants and private sector chairs to review government […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:46 pm, November 15th, 2008 - 34 comments
With a masterful awareness of the import of his actions, President Roosevelt termed his economic program to lift the US out of the Great Depression ‘the New Deal’. Laissez-faire capitalism, whereby the ‘invisible hand of the market’ ruled, had failed to fulfil the conditions of the social contract (a fair distribution of wealth between capital […]