More work for less pay, CTU claims
Half of the workerswho answered the annual Council of Trade Union’s satisfaction survey said their standard of living slipped in 2020.
The same proportion said their workload had increased, and some claimed they were routinely working unpaid overtime, resulting in their effective hourly wage being less than the minimum wage.
CTU secretary Melissa Ansell-bridges said workers’ plight wasn’t the result of the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the continued legacy of New Zealand’s pro-employer laws.
‘‘We’re still stuck with an individualised employment framework that was mostly devised in the 1990s and that tilts the playing field against working people,’’ she said.
‘‘Until that framework changes we’re not going to see people’swork lives get appreciably better,’’ she said.
But Act leader David Seymour dismissed the CTU survey as propaganda, because the people filling in the survey came from the CTU’S database of supporters.
‘‘People self-selected and they knew how their answers would be used,’’ said Seymour.
Ansell-bridges said the CTU was looking forward to four major bits of employment law reform this year.
They are increases to sick leave for workers to 10 days a year, a hike in the minimum wage to $20 an hour in April, the introduction of amatariki public holiday, and the creation of Fair Pay Agreements, which would set minimum employment standards for ‘‘industries’’.
But Seymour, who doubted the Government would find it easy to work out how to impose fair pay agreements, said none of these things would improve the economy, and ultimately conditions.
‘‘If you want to solve these problems of people being frustrated with theirwork and wanting better pay and conditions, the record of history is crystal clear,’’ he said.
‘‘The only way you can do that ismore and better opportunities for greater investment, more entrepreneurship, less red tape, and more company formation.
‘‘The best thing you can do for business is stop attacking it,’’ he said.
‘‘You look at Matariki, you look at fair pay, you look at sick leave, you look at minimum wage, which is so far ahead of productivity and inflation, and you add it all together, and you think, ‘Far out. It’s amazing anyone still employs anybody’.
‘‘Most retailers do want to pay their staffwell. The problem is the narrow margins in the retail sector,’’ Greg Harford, chief executive of Retail NZ, said.
But the past year was a tough one for many business owners, Harford said.
‘‘There’s a lot of small business owners who don’t actually pay themselves minimum wage out of their business, but are being forced to pay more for their staff.’’
Julia Liu, who was made redundant in
April from Sky City after more than 20 years working there, said many workers had endured a really tough time in 2020.
She joined the Unite union five years earlier, when she felt pressured to accept the status of a casual worker at the casino operator.
Nationally, only around one in 10 workers were in unions, and on collective agreements, figures from Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment show.
The planned hike in the minimum wage was welcomed by Ansell-bridges, who said repeated warnings in the past that minimum wage increases would cost jobs had been proved to be baseless.
But the Governmentwas warned by theministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in December that while ‘‘no increase would erode the real incomes of the lowest-paid workers compared to wage growth and inflation’’, the ministry recommended delaying the rise until October so as not to damage the economic recovery, and to lift the minimum wage by 25 cents to $19.15, rather than $20.
‘‘We’re still stuck with an individualised employment framework that was mostly devised in the 1990s and that tilts the playing field against working people.’’ Melissa Ansell-bridges
CTU secretary