Factory staff fed up with Sistema ‘sweatshop’
Workers are ‘‘fed up’’ with being paid minimum wage while working 60-hour weeks for plastic container manufacturer Sistema, a union says.
Sistema, which was bought for $660 million 18 months ago by Newell Brands, a United States Fortune 500 company, produces containers that have become a staple in New Zealand kitchens and workplace tearooms.
The union representing workers at Sistema, Et tu¯ , says the company is not only failing its staff on pay rates, but on health and safety as well.
But the company has hotly denied the allegations – which include a social media post of a worker who apparently blistered his fingers working at Sistema’s factory in Mangere, Auckland.
Et tu¯ has been in talks with the company to try to secure better pay and conditions for its mainly migrant workers. Of the 500 production staff that work at its purpose-built Mangere plant, about 200 are union members.
E tu¯ union advocate Neville Donaldson said more than 80 per cent of its workers were paid minimum wage of $16.50 an hour.
Staff were required to work five 12-hour shifts (totalling 60 hours) a week, with some of the shifts being graveyard, he said.
Workers were also required to pick up additional work and ‘‘overtime’’ rates were just $2 more per hour, he said.
The union was calling on Sistema to introduce a living wage of $20.50 an hour over the next three years, but the company would not agree, he said.
In a statement Sistema chief executive Drew Muirhead said the union’s claims were incorrect. ‘‘We strongly refute the outrageous claims made by the union that are full of half-truths and inaccuracies,’’ he said.
‘‘We have been in negotiation with them for several months and while their tactic may be to negotiate via the media we will not be participating.’’
More than 300 Sistema workers, both union and non-union, had signed a petition seeking better pay, Donaldson said.
‘‘When non-union workers join their unionised colleagues to protest about lack of respect, you know there’s a problem.’’
He said high staff turnover had resulted in low levels of staff education in health and safety. One delegate told E tu¯ Sistema was a ‘‘sweatshop’’.
Donaldson said Sistema had refused to address workers’ concerns. The union had held concerns about conditions at Sistema since before the company was sold but had not been able to take action due to low collective agreement numbers, he said.