Sham consultation – sham contracting

Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, July 7th, 2024 - 11 comments
Categories: act, Unions, workers' rights - Tags:

Minister for Workplace Relations and Health & Safety Brooke van Velden hasn’t met with the CTU Te Kauae Kaimahi since November last year. Apparently not with Business NZ either.

Though to be fair, she did manage to get to the Biz NZ cocktail party and meet with Uber.

After all, the CTU only represents 360,000 affiliated union members from 28 different unions.

The idea that the most representative organisation of NZ workers (ie the CTU) being shut out is gobsmacking, when the foundations of our employment relations system are built on International Labour Organisation Conventions we have signed up to, including Tripartism – which means unions, business and the government. It’s called Social partnership and dialogue.

Meanwhile, the Coalition’s Q3 targets have been announced, including :

  • Begin public consultation on reform of the Holidays Act.
  • Take Cabinet decisions on legislative amendments to clarify the employment status of contractors.

The Holidays Act includes sick leave which Brooke has her beady eyes on. Entitlements for part-time workers and calculation for Holidays to make it easy for “business” have already been announced as her goals. Somewhere in the mix are also health & safety laws. I don’t know what public consultation means unless it is Brooke talking to a couple of bosses or “I met a worker the other day”?

But let’s talk about contractors. No “consultation” there except with Uber. Currently, under NZ law, “contractors” can challenge their employment status in the Employment Relations Authority and if needed the Court. When an employer deliberately disguises an employment relationship by engaging someone as an ‘independent contractor” when that person should be an employee, that is sham contracting. They do it to avoid minimum entitlements like minimum wage, holidays, sick leave etc.

You might be surprised who is a “contractor”. Not only Uber drivers, but taxis, Courier drivers, many truck drivers and many industries. And even kids under 16 who are supposedly able to organise their own tax and ACC.

There was a time long ago when even home care workers were classed as contractors until their union (then SFWU) took a landmark case and they were declared “home workers” covered by employment law.

The difference is this ; it comes down to who has the power in the employment arrangement. Big companies like Uber, NZ Post, and even smaller companies who employ workers on farms, in orchards, have power over these workers and those who employ kids under 16 are exploiting the law. Challenging this is not an easy process, and in my view, the law needs to be strengthed, not smashed.

This is a long time argument. Remember the “Hobbit” law where John Key took away the rights of actors to collectively bargain as workers in the interests of Sir Peter J? That’s never been remedied, though there was a solution finally agreed to but not yet legislated for (much like a Fair Pay Agreement). Remember when part of the Winter of Discontent was around a new proposal defining who is a “worker” in the new Employment Relations Act which Labour was forced to back down on.

But here we go again. I guess we won’t get a say.

PS I wrote this a while ago ; nothing much has changed it seems.

11 comments on “Sham consultation – sham contracting ”

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  1. adam 1
    7 July 2024 at 12:52 pm

    brooke represents everything wrong with kiwi culture. Smug arrogance, a know it all, and the inability to honor a contract.

    So why should workers honor there laws in return? If the law is going to be the usual act shitfuckery, then bugger them. Bugger there rules and lack of civility.

    We are wage slaves, not out right slaves.

    So just stop.

  2. Mike the Lefty 2
    7 July 2024 at 5:10 pm

    She wouldn't want to talk to the CTU because they would ask her if her party wants to 1. reduce minimum sick leave for workers; 2. reduce minimum annual leave to three weeks 3. scrap the time and a half and one day in lieu for working on holidays and 4. scrap Labour day public holiday.

    The answer to all four questions is YES, but she wouldn't have the guts to tell them that face to face so better to avoid them.

  3. Mountain Tui 3
    7 July 2024 at 6:55 pm

    One of the first things she did when she became Minister was lie about consulting with unions about Fair Pay agreements.

    Treasury confirmed that it was a lie, after the unions complained. And one of her first actions was to cancel regular meetings with Business NZ and the CTU.

    While the Coalition govt made it easier for lobbyists, including hiding their identities.

    And if you were under any illusions she cares watch this: https://mountaintuihere.substack.com/p/new-zealands-minister-for-workplace

  4. Maurice 4
    8 July 2024 at 6:32 am

    So The Coalition has learnt well from the "urgency" rush in the last term of the Labour govt?

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/reckless-and-irresponsible-govt-urgently-pushing-through-24-bills-after-queens-death-caused-lost-time/4HWDAV7SHFHPXJRHKA2SHXRGSI/#google_vignette

    “The Government is rushing through 24 pieces of legislation, some without public submission, after an urgency motion was passed in the House.

    The motion, raised by the leader of the House Chris Hipkins, substantially extended the time when the House was sitting to allow the 24 bills – all at varying stages of progress – to be debated.

    Hipkins said the urgency was necessary after a week’s worth of House sitting time was lost when Queen Elizabeth II died on September 9.

    However, it meant four bills would move forward without going through the select committee process, which enabled the public to have their say on the proposed legislation.”

  5. Tiger Mountain 5
    8 July 2024 at 8:38 am

    This Minister is bad news, mimicking sirkey’s avoidance strategy. She is embarking on the most significant union busting since the 1991 Employment Contracts Act (which decimated union membership density) and the “Hobbit Law” that Key, US Studios, Lord Jackson and Weta’s Taylor conspired on. Helen Kelly wrote several accounts of the manipulation. https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1104/S00081/helen-kelly-the-hobbit-dispute.htm

    Make no mistake–Ms van Velden’s view of labour relations is from the Pinochet/Thatcher/Reagan/Chicago Boys school. She represents the NZ Ruling Class, Capital and Finance Capital and does not give shit #1 about NZ working class people.

    Direct action is the only way to garner her attention and get the CoC Govt. to pull their heads in.

    • Barfly 5.1
      8 July 2024 at 10:35 am

      I guess I will see you at the riots then?

      • Tiger Mountain 5.1.1
        8 July 2024 at 11:48 am

        Heh, no worries on that score Barfly. Was at Takaparawhau (Bastion Point), winter of ’81 Springbok tour protest front rower, helped lead a 10 week strike in South Auckland car industry and many other second tier bargaining strikes, supported Nuke Free NZ and Homosexual law reform, and unemployed workers rights “burn Shipley burn” in the 90s, and various community actions and occupations ever since.

        There just needs to be a genuine organising response from the NZCTU and its affiliates rather than leaving it to media channel statements. Unite, Etū, and Maritime do pretty well, but the PSA needs to drop the bogus political neutrality and take industrial action.

        • Patricia Bremner100% 5.1.1.1
          8 July 2024 at 1:29 pm

          100% TM Fence sitting won't do.

        • Darien Fenton 5.1.1.2
          8 July 2024 at 5:48 pm

          Have a look at the actions on 1 July around 65,000 care and support workers. PSA/NZNO/Etū, coming together on the huge injustice of their pay inequity. That imho opinion is a front of political organising underway and includes the PSA. Sometimes we are a bit blind to actions like theirs, because the media take no notice. But I do.

  6. adam 6
    9 July 2024 at 1:34 am

    More I think about this the more I have to say, I know I sound like a broken record.

    But at the end of the day, this is open class warfare. Uber are the new union/co-operative busters. They drive around till they get a monopoly, hike prices, then really screw working people over.

    It will create conflict in medium size bussiness, and government departments, because the petty managerial class in this country are a bunch of sprogs. Who, react really badly, when they are pulled up on their bullshit. Notably the male ones, around the whole issue of sexual bullying, that is rife in the workforce.

    Join a bloody union, it's the least you can do.