The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua.
“This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are not derived from the text, the intention of the parties or, the historical context in which the document was signed. It represents a direct attack on the legitimate meaning of Te Tiriti to undermine Māori rights,” said Acting NZCTU President Rachel Mackintosh.
“Our recommendation is that the Government completely abandon this Bill and make no further attempts to distort the genuine principles of Te Tiriti or to remove references to the Te Tiriti principles in legislation.
“From restricting the rights of unions to organise to attacking tino rangatiratanga, this Government has proven itself an enemy of collective rights and collective power.
“Just as workers are weakened when their collective strength is undermined, Māori face the risk of losing power and authority if their collective rights are stripped from them.
“This Bill has no place in a modern democracy. It represents backward colonial baggage that should be consigned to the dustbin of history.
“The NZCTU carries a long tradition of representing Māori workers and standing in solidarity with Māori. The struggle for workers’ rights and the struggle for tino rangatiratanga are inextricably linked. Both struggles stand in solidarity against the greed and ignorance of the powerful and claim for ordinary people what they justly deserve.
“The union movement represents more than 60,000 Māori workers, and we stand in solidarity with the tino rangatiratanga movement in the face of yet another attempt to undermine the collective strength of Tangata Whenua and working people,” said Mackintosh.
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney.
“The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller than at any time since June 2022. GDP per capita has now fallen for 8 consecutive quarters, with the fall accelerating in the past six months. The economic situation is even worse than we thought, and that means even more hardship for workers heading into Christmas,” said Renney.
“With unemployment being a lagging indicator, the pain for working people in terms of unemployment is likely to be worse than previously thought.
“Revisions to data have increased the strength of the economy in the past, which have removed the recessions recorded over the past few years. We now know that the economy was growing consistently during 2023 on an annual basis, and we have only had one recession since COVID – which is now.
“The data demonstrated that GDP fell across 11 of 16 sectors last quarter. Output fell across both goods producing sectors and service industries. Business Investment fell -2.5% last quarter, with large falls in plant, machinery & equipment. Falling business investment is likely to mean lower productivity growth in the future, and fewer jobs.
“This isn’t a wake-up call for the government, it’s an alarm. Excluding COVID lockdowns, this is the fastest fall in production GDP over six months since June 1991. Government spending has fallen at the fastest rate since 1992 and the budgets of Ruth Richardson. The economy isn’t back on track, its derailed.
“We have just had a budget where the Government’s fiscal plans have clearly been shown to have failed. Unemployment is rising – and will likely rise more.
“The economy is now showing the impact of the Government’s policies – it’s been in office for a year. It’s clear that it’s time for a new approach, or we will all suffer the devastating economic consequences,” said Renney.
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product.
“We need to follow Australia’s example and implement a total ban of engineered stone, a dangerous product that is killing workers,” said Polaczuk.
“Exposure to the silica dust from cutting engineered stone can cause the fatal lung disease silicosis. Workers exposed to this material are developing symptoms at an accelerated rate, and at a much younger age than other occupational respiratory diseases.
“The Minister has said that she’s consulting on the full spectrum of regulatory options but is also saying from the outset that she doesn’t think a ban is the way to go. She needs to keep an open mind and listen to the experts, and not rule out options from the outset.
“In July we joined with 18 other unions, public health experts and health and safety specialists and released an open letter calling on the Minister to listen to the overwhelming evidence and implement a ban. This is now her chance to do so.
“There are safe alternatives to engineered stone – it is a fashion item, not an essential product, and so we lose nothing from taking it out of the market.
“The Minister has the power to eliminate this hazard and save workers’ lives. This is her opportunity to do the right thing,” said Polaczuk.
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney.
“Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and deeper cuts programmed in the future. Our economic indicators are all heading in the wrong direction, with lower economic growth and higher unemployment. The Government’s policies are hurting working people, and they’re not working for Aotearoa,” said Renney.
“The data showed that the economy is growing more slowly than forecast just six months ago. Next year GDP growth was forecast to 1.7% at Budget, now its 0.5%. GDP is $20bn lower by 2028. Unemployment is higher in every year of the forecast – with 20,000 more people on jobseekers support by 2026. OBEGAL absent the new tricks of accounting – never comes back into surplus across the forecast period. Net Core Crown Debt increases across the forecast period by $58bn.
“The Budget Policy Statement signals that we are in for more cuts in the next few budgets. There is only $700m available at the next Budget to pay for everything outside health. That bakes in likely cuts to public investment and to the public sector workforce every year for the next few years. All to pay for the tax cuts that have now passed. The folly of that decision is now being uncovered.
“These books paint a picture of a government without a plan. The only solution the Minister of Finance is planning is to double down on an already failing strategy. These are the Government’s books; responsibility shouldn’t be passed on. Working people and communities across Aotearoa will suffer if we don’t change track,” said Renney.
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have sent an open letter to Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, following another round of devastating job cuts at WorkSafe.
“Aotearoa New Zealand’s record on workplace health and safety is costing the lives of so many workers, and instead of working to turn that record around, we have a Minister who is making decisions that will cost even more lives,” said NZCTU Acting President Rachel Mackintosh.
“WorkSafe already lost 15% of its staff in the last 12 months – 113 roles. Now the organisation will lose another 54 roles, which will critically undermine its core functions as our workplace health and safety regulator.
“Alongside these job cuts, WorkSafe have announced they are disestablishing the health team, which will undoubtedly lead to an increase in health-related harm and deaths in workplaces across the country.
“Dozens of New Zealand workers die each year as a result of workplace injuries. In addition, estimates suggest that 750-900 workers die each year from work-related occupational diseases such as asbestosis and cancers.
“This hollowing out of our health and safety regulator is deliberate. WorkSafe is being set up to fail. The Minister and her Government have an aversion to regulation, yet good regulation is essential to good health and safety and saving workers lives.
“Workers will need to issue the Minister with an improvement notice if she doesn’t start taking health and safety seriously and use her role to bring down our abysmal injury and death rates.
“This Minister is overseeing an all-out assault on working people – while gutting WorkSafe, she is leaving workers in the ditch on Holidays Act reform, undermining personal grievance claims, and threatening to weaken health and safety law. This is on top of scrapping fair pay agreements, bringing back 90-day fire at will agreements and redrafting employment law on behalf of the multinational corporation, Uber.
“Working people are sick and tired of this Minister and her extreme anti-worker agenda. It’s well past time she learnt the requirements of her role and put the health and wellbeing of workers above the interests of big business.
“We are putting Brooke van Velden on notice and saying enough is enough,” said Mackintosh.
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation.
“With inflation forecast at 2% by the Reserve Bank, the new minimum wage rate is an effective cut in real terms and will leave workers worse off. This is the second year in a row where this Government has made the decision to cut the Minimum wage in real terms,” said NZCTU Acting President Rachel Mackintosh.
“National promised to support New Zealanders through the cost-of-living crisis, and yet this decision will mean that the lowest income workers fall even further behind. Minimum wage Workers are now $1,206 a year worse off as a consequence of these real term wage cuts”.
“Government has a responsibility to ensure that all workers have enough to afford rent, pay the bills, put good food on the table, and buy their kids what they need. How are workers meant to keep up with rising food and rent costs when the Government is cutting their wages in real terms?
“At a time when inflation is coming down, this was an opportunity for the Government to give workers a break and ensure they get real terms pay increases.
“All New Zealand workers have the right to a liveable income to support their families – they deserve to be paid a Living Wage,” said Mackintosh.
Iain Rennie, CNZM Secretary and Chief Executive to the Treasury
Dear Secretary,
Undue restrictions on restricted briefings
This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been formally invited, by the Treasury, to attend the briefing. After the CTU replied to the invitation, Treasury appears to have changed its rules for attendance. Our application to attend was then rejected.
The Treasury now states that “Representatives from peak bodies, professional bodies, unions, universities, industry bodies, industry information services, and advocacy groups, among others, would no longer be allowed to attend”. That means bodies such as Business New Zealand would not be able to attend, nor would organisations such as Local Government New Zealand, Child Poverty Action Group, Aotearoa 350, or Tax Justice Aotearoa. Alongside the CTU these are all national organisations with a strong and legitimate interest in understanding how the government is investing its resources.
Treasury said the purpose of restricted briefings is to provide participants with time to consider materials before public release to enable more accurate reporting and to assist “in transparency and accountability to the public”. The Treasury has therefore concluded that other groups, such as the CTU, no longer have a time-sensitive need for the materials. This despite the fact that attendance by bodies such as these has been the norm for many years without incident.
We must object to this interpretation in the strongest terms. Groups – including the CTU – affected by the new guidelines regularly provide their analysis of Budget figures to their own readers, who number in the hundreds of thousands, and provide expert analysis to journalists attending the restricted briefings. Both functions assist in transparency and accountability to the public, which is the purpose of restricted briefings.
How does it promote the interests of “transparency and accountability to the public” or assist public understanding when external organisations such as Bloomberg will be able to tell foreign investors what’s in the Government books, and provide considered analysis, faster than organisations representing New Zealand workers, business, and taxpayers?
The CTU alone represents 27 Trade Unions with more than 300,000 members. They have a keen interest in understanding the financial situation of the Government – many of whose employment and income rely on the Crown Accounts. Timely analysis and communications from the CTU are essential. Could you please explain why their need for information is less important than that of financial markets?
The lock-up is also an opportunity to engage with the Minister of Finance and the Secretary of the Treasury. To ask questions about the contents of the report, and to have answers to questions heard by media. There is no other opportunity to do that outside of this lock-up. Why should banks be able to ask the Minister questions about economic growth, but other groups find themselves shut out?
Lock-ups do not just bring analysts into a room with access to advance copy of the fiscal documents. Attendees at restricted briefings can also ask Treasury officials how complex estimates were generated. Being able to ask officials about the estimates helps analysts provide better-informed reports with fewer errors. It also means that analysts who misrepresent the figures have little excuse for their own errors.
We sympathise with Treasury’s predicament. When more people wish to attend restricted briefings than can be accommodated, it has to choose who to disappoint. But there has never been a HYEFU briefing where the room was full, and where those who attended couldn’t be seated. This is not a capacity issue.
Democracy and public scrutiny are not supported by locking social partners and non-financial institutions out of the lock-up. This is a retrograde step, which appears to have nothing to do with capacity, security, or with a desire to ensure that complex documents such as the HYEFU are communicated well to audiences across New Zealand.
The CTU strongly urges the Treasury to reconsider these guidelines and your decision to rescind our access. We look forward to a timely response to this letter.
Brooke van Velden has wasted six years of work from businesses, unions, and government by binning planned Holidays Act reforms, said Acting CTU President Rachel Mackintosh in response to today’s announcement from Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety.
“The Minister has cynically kicked the can on Holiday Act reform even further down the road, meaning an even longer delay for workers trying to get their basic rights to leave recognised,” said Mackintosh.
“The Government is again making decisions that are bad for workers by departing from an agreement that ensured any changes wouldn’t be damaging to working people.
“When this review commenced, businesses and unions agreed that Holidays Act reforms would not result in leaving workers worse off. The change in direction announced today throws that agreement up in the air.
“Workers and businesses have asked for clarity around their Holidays Act requirements. Rather than getting on with the job, all the Minister has done today is ensure greater uncertainty for even longer.
“Her proposed new model could also mean that every worker would need to record their hours worked, which would add complexity to the system. The Minister needs to listen to workers and business as social partners and implement what was already agreed.
“In her speech today, the Minister mentioned she was listening to employers and “experts” but failed to mention workers. This is more evidence that she is making decisions for only the employer side of the employment relationship, not the millions of workers in this country.
“After six years of work and tripartite agreement on the future of the Holidays Act, today the Minister has taken us back to the start. In doing so, she also appears to have taken protections for workers off the table.
“This is yet another example of this Government deliberately making life harder for working people,” said Mackintosh.
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi is slamming the Government for failing to show any leadership on infrastructure delivery after they revealed today, they have no plan to replace the Cook Strait ferries a year on from their decision to cancel the iReX project.
“Today’s announcement by the Minister of Finance showed why New Zealanders shouldn’t trust this Government on infrastructure – despite wasting huge amounts of money and time, they still have no coherent plan to replace the Cook Strait ferries,” said Acting NZCTU President Rachel Mackintosh.
“It has been a year since the Government cancelled the existing contract and we know little more now than we did then. We have no information on where replacement ferries are coming from, how much they will cost, who will pay for them, or how the port infrastructure will be delivered. We don’t know how much it will cost to cancel the existing order.
“New Zealand had contracts for ships that had been set to arrive in February 2026 and September 2026. We are now planning on having ships possibly arrive sometime in 2029.
“The ferries are reaching the end of their service life, and all we have been given another working group. The original project should never have been cancelled.
“Crucially, it now appears as if the decision has been made to take rail-enabled ships off the table. The Government is now talking about being “rail compatible”. This will mean using lorries to put freight on and off ferries. This will take longer, is less efficient, will raise costs for users, and will likely increase emissions.
“The Government announcement also appears keen to privatise the service, stating that they are open to proposals from the private sector. This would likely mean that a private entity will take profit out of a service currently being run by government.
“Workers on the Cook Strait ferries, service users, and New Zealanders all deserve better than this. This is a plan to have a plan at some point in the future. What is needed is action,” said Mackintosh.
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting President Rachel Mackintosh is calling on political parties to vote down Brooke van Velden’s Employment Relations (Pay Deductions for Partial Strikes) Amendment Bill, as it would undermine the ability of workers to engage in industrial action and may even lead to workers losing pay for simply doing the job they were employed to do.
“Enabling pay deductions for partial strike action is bad lawmaking and will have the opposite effect of what the Minister is claiming to achieve through this law change,” said Mackintosh.
“Allowing employers to deduct wages for partial strikes allows for the intimidation of workers and may mean that partial strike action will be abandoned, forcing workers to fully withdraw labour, which will escalate disputes.
“Industrial action is supposed to help level the power imbalances in employment relationships that favour employers. This change undermines that and tips the balance of power even further in favour of employers by introducing a punitive response to legitimate industrial action.
“It is absurd that the Minister considers that work-to-rule is a form of partial strike. Work-to-rule just means following the letter of your employment agreement, for example choosing not to change a scheduled shift or complete a task that is outside the scope of your role.
“What this will mean is that a worker could be punished financially for simply doing the job they were employed to do, and not even engaging in strike action.
“The Bill currently before the House is in contradiction with our international commitments to provide workers the right to organise and collectively bargain, and to provide adequate protection to workers against acts of anti-union discrimination in employment.
“We believe that the Government should be proactively enabling and engaging in upcoming public service collective bargaining rather than creating loopholes and escapes to undermine the country’s employment relations framework.
“The only winners of this Bill will be the lawyers. This legislation will lead to increased litigation, and prolonging bargaining and industrial action at the expense of both workers and employers.
“Christopher Luxon is once again allowing the ACT party to advance its extreme anti-worker agenda in this latest round of brazen attacks on the rights of working people,” said Mackintosh.
