Posts Tagged ‘workers’ rights’

The real story of the ports dispute

Written By: - Date published: 1:14 pm, February 29th, 2012 - 120 comments

MUNZ workers and their families explain in their own words how changes being promoted by management of the Auckland City owned Ports of Auckland will affect their families. Watch this video to find out what the Ports of Auckland dispute is really about:

Ports of Auckland and casualisation

Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, January 27th, 2012 - 11 comments

CTU President Helen Kelly talks about the Ports of Auckland and the effects of casualisation on workers and workplace health and safety.

Sleepover Bill in House tonight

Written By: - Date published: 4:10 pm, September 27th, 2011 - 48 comments

Bloody Klowns

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, February 5th, 2011 - 80 comments

Ever been in a job where you thought you were underpayed and overworked? Ever voiced those feelings to your workmates? Either on the job, or during ‘smoko’, over the telephone or through some other electronic medium?

A Burger King employee in Dunedin has. And now, astonishingly,  faces the possibility of being fired for serious misconduct.

A Case of IHG?

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 pm, October 6th, 2010 - 31 comments

Seems these days that when people get in to financial strife, the Government is all too happy to offer a helping hand loaded down with wadges of cash.  Sometimes…

And then sometimes something altogether more short and sharp is offered. Depending…

Fairness at Work rallies 21 & 22 August

Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, August 20th, 2010 - 56 comments

Workers are getting together to oppose the government’s changes to employment law with rallies in the four main centres this weekend. Join your rally.
The Saturday rallies against National’s anti-work rights bill assemble at:
Auckland, QE2 Square, bottom of Queen St – 1pm
Wellington, Civic Square – 1pm
Christchurch, Catherdal Square – 1pm
and on Sunday:
Dunedin, Dental School, Great King St – 11am

Lazy academic calls Pacific Island workers lazy

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, May 21st, 2008 - 74 comments

Economist Greg Clydesdale has released a report in which he says Pacific Islanders are a drain on the New Zealand economy (exhibiting “significant and enduring under-achievement” and “that can contribute little to economic growth” in his words). I accept Clydesdale’s cry that he is not a racist. No, he is just a fool who is […]

Workers be careful, says Aussie Unionist

Written By: - Date published: 10:13 pm, May 7th, 2008 - 158 comments

Sharan Burrow (President of Australian Council of Trade Unions) talked to Morning Report about the union experiences in Australia under a conservative government, and their hope for the future with Kevin Rudd. She also had some words of warning for NZ workers: “We say to your workers here, be very careful, you don’t want to […]

I’ve got a solution, what’s the problem?

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, April 23rd, 2008 - 38 comments

The junior doctors’ strike is a difficult issue. On the one hand, these are highly valuable workers whom we can’t afford to lose overseas and they do work long hours in difficult conditions. On the other hand, the pay rise they want would cost $50 million and is well above what other medical professionals have […]

What would National do?: Emigration

Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, April 22nd, 2008 - 18 comments

Simon Power has hit on the fact that Stats New Zealand produces migration figures every month, and that means every month he gets to report the number of New Zealanders heading for Australia as if a) the number is unprecedented, which it is not b) it’s all the Government’s fault, which it’s not. Not that […]

National makes work rights the defining issue

Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, April 21st, 2008 - 32 comments

National’s strategy, the strategy of a weak party, is to present a ‘small target’ by promising to change virtually nothing if they were in government. Problem is, their small target has a great big bull’s-eye on it called work rights. With flip-flops on health, education, welfare, annual leave, parental leave, assets, Working for Families, Kiwisaver, […]

The shape of things to come

Written By: - Date published: 5:10 pm, April 17th, 2008 - 74 comments

With the loss of 500 ANZ National jobs to Bangalore India and 430 jobs from Fisher and Paykel to Mexico announced today, a pattern is emerging. The race to the bottom has picked up speed. Companies are increasingly outsourcing their work to low wage economies, like China, India and Mexico, putting hundreds of New Zealand […]

Spot the difference

Written By: - Date published: 4:35 pm, April 17th, 2008 - 33 comments

Hmm, spot the difference in the headlines of two press releases out today: ‘Fisher & Paykel Appliances Announces Global Manufacturing Strategy’ ‘Next Steps in ANZ National’s business transformation’ Cut out the weasel words and what is the net result 930 fewer jobs in New Zealand. The two companies involved, Fisher & Paykel and ANZ National, […]

Cost of benefit system plummeting

Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, April 17th, 2008 - 26 comments

Continuing our benefits theme, here’s a look at how much the benefit system costs you. The figures are the combined expenditure by the Government on the Unemployment, Sickness, Invalids’, and Domestic Purposes benefits per day per working age New Zealander, in 2007 dollars. Sources: MSD (1,2,3), StatsNZ (4,5) The portion of the working age population […]

On the scrapheap

Written By: - Date published: 3:54 pm, April 15th, 2008 - 31 comments

This graph shows the number of people employed in New Zealand, and employment would have been had the number of people with a job as a portion of the working-age population had remained steady at 76% as it was before 1987. Look what happened during the rightwing economic revolution from 1987 to 1999 (when National […]

A decent job with fair pay

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, April 15th, 2008 - 30 comments

That’s what the labour movement is all about: ensuring that people who want to work can find jobs and that they receive fair reward for their labour in decent conditions, so they can afford a good standard of living for themselves and their families. A job gives people a sense of purpose, a feeling that […]

Bad politics

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, April 13th, 2008 - 91 comments

National’s current attempt to stop the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union from registering as a third party pretty much proves what we all knew. They have no interest in democracy. Rather than accept the decision of the Electoral Commission and move on they’ve decided to appeal the decision and apply for an injunction to stop […]

National forced to support meal breaks

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, April 10th, 2008 - 28 comments

National has found itself politically unable to oppose the amendment to the Employment Relations Act that will ensure workers are entitled to meal breaks and to breastfeed at work. But they will be offering only ‘cautious‘ support to a Bill that protects such basic rights, and only to select committee stage. Kate Wilkinson, National’s labour […]

Fair and balanced

Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, April 8th, 2008 - 16 comments

The Herald could barely contain its self-satisfaction when National’s David Farrar complained to the Electoral Commission that the country’s largest private sector union, the EPMU, which comprises 50,000 working New Zealanders, should not be allowed to register as a third party under the Electoral Finance ACT. ‘ Law gags friend as well as foe‘ proclaimed […]

Davey gets it wrong again

Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, April 4th, 2008 - 79 comments

David Farrar’s latest political campaign on behalf of the National Party has, like so many of them before, foundered on the sharp rocks of reality. In an attempt reminiscent of the ramshackle PR fiasco that was the Free Speech Coalition, DPF tried to get the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union’s application for third party status […]

In praise of ACC

Written By: - Date published: 2:21 pm, April 3rd, 2008 - 34 comments

It was nice to see this independent report into the ACC scheme by Price Waterhouse Coopers. Amongst the general positive comments was this observation: “The ACC under its current implementation structure performs as well or better than most other schemes we can observe around the world.” “No fault” models (such as ours) are associated with: […]

Sack Spotless

Written By: - Date published: 7:20 pm, April 2nd, 2008 - 14 comments

I’ve just got back from a small but very vocal picket outside Spotless’ corporate HQ on The Terrace in solidarity with the 800 cooks, cleaners and orderlies from hospitals around New Zealand who began 24 hours of strike action today. They’re striking because despite agreeing to a pay deal with Spotless last year the company […]

The trans-Tasman wage gap

Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, April 1st, 2008 - 107 comments

Now this is rich. National, the party that gave New Zealand its low wage economy, is running the line that the trans-Tasman wage gap is “Labour’s legacy”. You’d think such a shameless rewriting of history would be laughed off in a second, but it seems in the age of the memory hole even senior political […]

April 1 changes boost wages and cut taxes

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, April 1st, 2008 - 15 comments

Today is a big day for government policy affecting Kiwis’ incomes: The minimum wage is now $12 an hour, up from $7 when Labour gained power. Youth rates have been effectively abolished, meaning young people will get the same pay for the same work. From today, employers must contribute to employees’ Kiwisaver accounts equivalent to 1% […]

An embarrassing effort

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 pm, March 27th, 2008 - 36 comments

Ever since the Herald lost its rag over the EFA I’ve come to expect little more than half-truths and inaccuracies from its editorials, but today’s effort was particularly disappointing. Business NZ press release in one hand and a keyboard in the other, the Herald had itself all wound up over suggestions that proposed minimum entitlements to meal […]

Boohoo

Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, March 26th, 2008 - 8 comments

Legislated breaks for workers are unnecessary according to Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O’Reilly. His bitter protest against proposed changes to employment legislation that would guarantee rights to breaks that workers should have anyway, was joined by Hospitality Association chief exec Bruce Robertson despairing that no one is allowed to do anything anymore. Phil […]

Meal breaks

Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, March 26th, 2008 - 13 comments

I had planned to write something about the business lobby’s moaning over Labour’s plans to restore workers’ rights to meal and rest breaks, but as usual No Right Turn nails it perfectly: The government’s plan to restore a minimum entitlement for breaks in the workplace has produced the usual reaction: squealing from employer’s groups, with the Hospitality […]

Blackball centenary

Written By: - Date published: 4:32 pm, March 25th, 2008 - 10 comments

The weekend marked the centenary of the Blackball miners’ strike. TV3 reported that: “Politicians flocked to Labour’s spiritual home on the West Coast to celebrate the centenary of a miners’ strike which helped build the country’s Labour movement into a political force.”

Whatever, Roger

Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, March 20th, 2008 - 74 comments

NZers’ wallets will bulge under Act, says Roger Douglas. Sure they will Roger – with the bills from our kids’ user-pays schools, our privatised hospital fees, water charges, private accident insurance premiums and, if your party gets half a chance, the privatised oxygen from the air we breathe. Because we all know who gets rich […]

Nationalise Air New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, March 18th, 2008 - 65 comments

The recent scandal over Air New Zealand underpaying its Chinese workers to the tune of four times less than their New Zealand counterparts comes as no surprise given the sick management culture at our national carrier, and highlights some serious contradictions in the airline’s ownership structure. Here we have a company that’s 80% owned by […]

Tax cuts = no rise in the minimum wage?

Written By: - Date published: 3:04 pm, March 13th, 2008 - 26 comments

From the ABC site: “A peak business group says the Federal Government’s promised tax cuts should be taken into account when deciding on an increase to the minimum wage. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry is proposing a rise of $10 to $11 – in line with last year’s increase. The ACTU is lobbying for […]