The House went into recess yesterday, and today we seem to have a rush of stories that are bad news for the government, and it’s policies. As well as the whole Collins shoddy way or dealing with the Binnie report on the issues of David Bain’s compensation, Paula Bennett’s punitive policies, and the government’s anti-union, anti-worker campaign and policies are being shown up as counter-productive.
Bennett’s youth camps are not achieving their aims:
For the 31 people who attended the camps prior to April this year, 61 per cent reoffended within six months, with about 60 per cent offending less seriously and less frequently than they had before they attended the camp.
While 12 did not reoffend after the camp, 19 did and 10 youth built up 126 offences between them in just six months.
Youth offending in New Zealand, however, has steadily declined over the past 10 years.
Following the attempts to attack workers’ rights to stable and fair employment, Ports of Auckland have been found guilty of breaking the law during the dispute with MUNZ:
Ports of Auckland has been ordered to pay $40,000 for deliberately breaking the law by employing contractors during industrial action at the port.
The Employment Relations Authority ruled that Ports of Auckland Ltd (POAL) broke the law in February and March when they employed an engineer from overseas at a cost of $10,000 a week to do the work of striking Maritime Union members.
It also illegally used local contractors to carry out engineering work.
At the time union members were on strike and locked out in their battle to stop management contracting out their jobs.
In a decision released yesterday, authority member Anna Fitzgibbon said the port had made “calculated decisions” to break the law.
NZ businesses are warned about the negative impact of low wages, poor working conditions and disregard for workers’ rights.
And Simon Woolley, the business unit manager at Hay Group, said Kiwi firms need to look out for Asia becoming a ‘talent threat’ – especially on top of the competition already posed by Australia.
“If your employees lack job security, feel overworked and under-rewarded, then there is a high chance that they will be attracted to economies or organisations that are continuing to grow strong, and that offer greater opportunities for career development and reward flexibility.”
“It is evident that Australia is doing a very good job of marketing itself to New Zealand with a record 53,700 people moving across the ditch over the past year,” said Woolley.
For this reason, Woolley recommends New Zealand companies make sure they have reward strategies in place with strong incentives to hold on to their staff.
Then there’s the up-coming A-G’s report on Sky City, the international convention centre and the shonkey pokies deal. What other things will Key and his government try to slip under the radar during the summer recess?
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