The Herald reports that Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union members have won the right to a substitute holiday to make up for the fact that Anzac Day and Easter Monday fall on the same day next year as well as a three percent pay rise for this year and another next year.
You read that right, at a time when the government is attacking workers rights two thousand EPMU members are increasing their holidays and getting a pay rise.
And according to the EPMU National Secretary, Andrew Little, the union plans to negotiate the extra day’s holiday into all of its collective agreements.
As you’d expect the employers’ rep Alasdair Thompson is saying such a deal for all workers would hurt productivity. That’s because business thinks productivity is about Kiwis working harder for less and under the government’s new laws they’ll be able to push that vision even further.
Like Irish said yesterday the new laws are going to hit non-union workers the hardest. I can’t think of a better time to be a union member.
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