Good employer

Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, March 15th, 2013 - 13 comments
Categories: employment, wages - Tags: , ,

It’s usually the bad employers who make the news, and who occupy the attentions of unions, workers, and the labour movement. So let’s hear it for the silent majority, the good employers who are out there!

Case in point – look at this:

First employer adopts living wage

A Henderson tofu maker has become the first Auckland employer to sign up to the living wage campaign, promising to pay its six factory workers at least $18.40 an hour within a year.

Tonzu, a family-owned company, has a current starting wage of $15 an hour and says it would cost $600 a week to lift everyone to $18.40 – a pay rise averaging $100 a week for workers such as 31-year-old mother-of-four Meaalofa Meke.

Bravo to TONZU! Check out their web page, give them your business, this is a great move and it deserves support. Let’s see more employers signing up to the living wage…

13 comments on “Good employer ”

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  1. mickysavage 1
    15 March 2013 at 12:41 pm

    And it should be mentioned that one of the owners Jessie Chalmers is also an elected member of the Waitemata Local Board and looking to stand out west this time.

  2. Rosie 2
    15 March 2013 at 1:10 pm

    That IS good news re Tonzu paying a living wage to its workers. They are a great example to other employers in the food manufacturing sector. Having dealt with them as suppliers back in the day I can say they were always on the level and walked the talk. No greenwash with that family. It’s been good to see their company grow over the years and it goes to show that business can be sustainable, ethical and profitable. There is no need for companies to be A-Holes (think Talleys, Sealord, Preston Taylor etc) to turn a profit.

    Sadly there are also companies in NZ in the same category as the Chalmers – (Wholefoods/Organics) who aren’t such clean operators. The worst offenders for low pay rates, intimidation, poor staff moral, serious health and safety breaches (including unreported serious harm) and screwing down raw product suppliers as well as turning a blind eye to non compliance that I have ever seen, have been in this category.

    We have such a very long way to go in terms of improving our business behaviour in NZ so bigs ups to Tonzu for demonstrating what a good employer and a good ethical business is. Lets hope it catches on.

    PS: Copied from Open Mike 14/03/13

  3. bad12 3
    15 March 2013 at 2:03 pm

    Yes hats off to these people for their excellent employee relations and agreeing to the paying of the ‘living wage’

    Will we hear the Opposition Party’s join in with such forward thinking business people, a wages policy of the raising of the minimum wage by $1.50 an hour for every year the next Labour/Green government are in power gets us to that living wage in the first term,

    A policy of raising that minimum wage by $1.50 an hour every year in my estimate would be all that is required for a 2% electoral swing toward the Opposition Party’s,

    Such a policy is of benefit to everybody including employers, businesses, and the Government and that’s without going into the massive benefits accrued to society and those reliant upon that minimum wage to survive upon…

  4. Naturesong 4
    15 March 2013 at 3:23 pm

    They also make good tofu, I’ve been buying it for the last few years.
    Instead of just seeing my bank balance heading south by $4.29 when I buy some, I now have a warm happy feeling =D

  5. Rogue Trooper 5
    15 March 2013 at 3:35 pm

    Exceptional

  6. quartz 6
    15 March 2013 at 4:18 pm

    I buy a couple of packs of tofu a week. It’ll be Tonzu tofu from now on.

    • Rosie 6.1
      15 March 2013 at 4:59 pm

      Tonzu products, including the vego sausages and the vego mince taste waaaay better than the other brands as well. Happy days!

  7. Colonial Viper 7
    15 March 2013 at 5:19 pm

    🙂 this is called sharing the wealth

  8. AsleepWhileWalking 8
    15 March 2013 at 5:35 pm

    Awesome Tonzu! Never heard of this brand until now…will be looking out for it : )

  9. Belladonna 9
    15 March 2013 at 6:48 pm

    Buy this product and everyone wins, the consumer, the workers and the animals. Why wouldn’t you.

    • McFlock 9.1
      15 March 2013 at 7:03 pm

      it’s tofu. I don’t do tofu.

      But hopefully a company whose product I might buy will learn from TONZU’s fine example. I’d certainly be switching then.

  10. felixviper 10
    15 March 2013 at 8:15 pm

    Good tofu too.