The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions is calling on investors in Supie to do the right thing and pay the company’s workers the money they are owed.
Workers at Supie were reportedly advised yesterday that the company had gone into voluntary administration and they would not be paid for their last two weeks of work or their annual leave.
NZCTU Secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges says investors have a moral obligation to pay workers what they are owed.
“These are low paid workers already dealing with a cost of living crisis who are now being robbed of their final pay and their annual leave. Many of them are now concerned they will not be able to pay their rent.
“This is a clear injustice and the investors have a moral responsibility to put it right. It is the investors who took a risk on Supie in the hope of financial reward, and it is they who should bear that risk, not the workers who have done everything they can to make the business a success.
“We are calling on the investors to stop hiding behind the legal fiction of the company structure and instead get together and pay the workers what they are owed.”
Ansell-Bridges says this issue shows New Zealand needs to strengthen worker protections, not weaken them.
“New Zealand ranks lower than Paraguay when it comes to worker protections in cases of business failure.
“Instead of trying to remove Fair Pay Agreements and restore 90 day trials, the incoming government should be looking to improve worker protections to avoid injustices like we are seeing right now at Supie.”
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions welcomes back President Richard Wagstaff and National Secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges, who were both re-elected for a four-year term.
Today at the NZCTU Biennial Conference, all four officers standing for election were welcomed back unopposed.
Richard Wagstaff was thrilled to represent the peak union movement for a third term.
“It remains a huge honour to represent and advocate for workers across the motu. A strong union movement is essential for New Zealand as we continue to navigate new challenges like just transitions, the ongoing pandemic, and increasing inequality.”
Melissa Ansell-Bridges expressed her privilege in continuing as National Secretary for a second term.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, but the NZCTU remains deeply committed to working people. I’m looking forward to continuing this work for another four years.”
Vice-President Rachel Mackintosh was also re-elected for a third term, and Vice President Māori Syd Keepa was re-elected for a fourth term.
While working people across Aotearoa New Zealand relax on Labour Day, the incoming government is busy drawing up plans to overturn recent advances for workers’ rights warns the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.
“This day of celebration for working people is tinged with sadness as the next government plots a return to employment relations of the past,” said Council of Trade Unions President Richard Wagstaff.
“But make no mistake, the union movement will be fighting hard to protect the gains we have made and will continue to advocate for policies that raise wages and provide security for families.”
National has made clear its intention to pass legislation within the first 100 days in government to overturn progress made by the Labour government in strengthening protections for workers.
It plans to:
scrap Fair Pay Agreements that set minimum pay, leave and other conditions for workers in an industry or occupation
reinstate 90-day fire at will employment trial periods for all businesses regardless of size.
“It’s simply indecent haste,” said Wagstaff. “Bargaining for Fair Pay Agreements is only just getting underway – including for several essential groups like supermarket workers, security guards and bus drivers.
“We don’t understand what National, ACT and employer groups fear from agreements which support good employers by ensuring that they can’t be undercut by those looking to exploit low paid workers.
“National says it wants a high wage economy – we agree so let’s keep Fair Pay Agreements because they are all about boosting the wages of Kiwis and keeping good workers here.
“Similar industry wide bargaining agreements overseas support that. Australia’s modern awards system has helped wages there continue to outstrip what Kiwi workers are earning.
“The reinstatement of the 90-day fire at will law is also a step backwards. Treasury has stated that the 90-day provision does not lead to increased hiring of workers which employers so often claim is the case.
“The fact that this is all happening while we mark the introduction of the eight-hour working day 124 years ago says a lot about the priorities of the incoming government.
“The good news is that the union movement is in strong heart, we are well organised and will be campaigning strongly for what working people need – decent wages and job security,” said Richard Wagstaff.
Inflation data released today by Statistics NZ showed that the cost of living rose by 5.6% in September 2023, down from 6% in the June Quarter. CTU Economist Craig Renney said “This data confirms the downward trend for annual inflation, with the inflation rate now having fallen for five consecutive quarters. While inflation is still too high, this further suggests that some of the heat has come out from the inflation challenges over the past two years”.
Renney said “Food pricing drove the largest change, with prices for groceries increasing 11% annually, and the price of ready-to-eat food rising 9.4%. The cost of insurance also rose significantly with home and contents insurance both rising at nearly 20% annually. Recent petrol price increases were recognised with quarterly inflation showing a 16.5% increase in petrol costs. However, they were only 3.7% higher than this time last year”.
Renney said “While this data is encouraging, the fact that quarterly inflation lifted from 1.1% to 1.8% supports our view that now is not the right time for potentially inflationary tax cuts and other tax changes. Organisations such as Goldman Sachs have said these changes could further exacerbate inflation in New Zealand, causing the Reserve Bank to hold interest rates higher for longer. This data should make the incoming Minister of Finance pause and re-examine before delivering any changes that could make life harder in Aotearoa.
“We also know that many people are doing it tough right now with the cost of living. Many will be relying on essential public services to get through. The possible cuts to public services needed to pay for tax cuts will have to be deeper if inflation is made worse. The CPI data provided today should be seen as an early test of whether the incoming Minister of Finance is prepared to be pragmatic in the face of new evidence”.
Fresh analysis by the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has revealed that New Zealanders under the age of 44 would face an effective ‘Pension Tax’ of up to $200 a fortnight if National forms the next government.
NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said “No analysis of National’s plan to raise the age of qualification for superannuation by two years to age 67 has ever been provided by them.
“National has a habit of not being upfront with voters about its plans and this latest example underlines again the real costs to working people of a National-led government.”
Using recently released data from the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update, the NZCTU has quantified the impact of that change on Kiwi families.
“A couple aged 43 and under would lose $175,206 in super payments, after tax. To replace this, they would need to save an extra $196 each fortnight, assuming a 5% annual interest rate.
“The maximum income tax cut for a couple under National’s tax plan is $102 a fortnight – meaning that they would be at least $94 a fortnight worse off. This means that they would need to save an extra $5,085 between them every year.
“Single people aged 43 and under would lose $113,885 after tax. To make up for that, they would need to save an extra $129 a fortnight in an account paying 5% annual interest. The maximum tax cut for a single person under National would be $51 a fortnight, meaning that they would be at least $78 a fortnight short.
“This money from affected people and their families doesn’t buy them anything new. It just replaces the income they would have had if the pension age remained the same. This is money they won’t have for saving for a home deposit or meeting the cost of living.
“Working people deserve better from National. They are giving small tax changes with one hand yet taking even more back with the other and failing to tell voters the cost.”
Many Kiwis are not able to work an additional two years due to their health and the physical nature of their jobs.
Paramedic Geoff Hunt said this change would be unworkable.
“I love my job working for my community. But it’s mentally demanding, physical work that no one should have to be doing at 67. I don’t know how I would save an extra $100 a week to make up the difference.”
The Retirement Commissioner’s 2022 Review of Retirement Income Policies recommended against increasing the age of superannuation due to its disproportionate impact on Māori, Pasifika, women, and people with disabilities or chronic health conditions.
The Commissioner said the move would disadvantage certain demographics.
“Any increase to the age of people accessing NZ Super will only further disadvantage women, Māori, and Pacific People.”
Renney said “This is sensible advice, and our analysis lays out the real and significant financial costs to younger New Zealanders today from National’s ‘Pension Tax’.”
Note on the calculations: To calculate the loss of superannuation payments, the CTU has taken the current after-tax rates of superannuation payments for couples and single people. We have projected these payments forward to 2047, when National’s superannuation age increase would be in full effect, based on the average rate of after-tax wage growth across 20 years (3.5%, according to Treasury’s Fiscal Strategy Model).
For the required savings calculation, we have assumed an average savings interest rate of 5% based on historical experience and deducted 30% tax.
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions analysis has revealed that a select group of landlords would be made tax-cut millionaires if Christopher Luxon’s landlord tax breaks are delivered after 14 October.
NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said “National waited until the very last moment to tell New Zealanders about their tax and fiscal plans. Day after day their numbers are being challenged.
“Now, we can reveal another harsh and unfair reality of their tax plan. ‘Mega-landlords’ would each likely make more than a million dollars extra from the removal of mortgage interest deductibility. Meanwhile, those who get disability benefits would see their incomes fall by more than $17,000 across the same period.
“Over five years, Nationals tax cuts would give $1.3 million to each of those landlords with more than 200 properties. This is based on the average benefit that landlords would get. Over five years this group of 346 mega-landlords would collectively gain nearly half a billion dollars in tax breaks.
“We know this windfall gain would not be passed on in lower rents, but would just further fatten the bank accounts of landlords.”
These figures have been independently verified by Terry Baucher, taxation specialist at Baucher Consulting.
Renney said “Christopher Luxon clearly wants to cut public services and will likely have to go further than planned because his foreign buyer’s tax and casino tax don’t add up. But National has not been upfront with voters about who gains from his tax policy. Last week we discovered that only 3,000 households would get the much claimed $250 a fortnight benefit. Now we discover that around 300 landlords would make millions.
“This is just another example of National’s reverse Robin Hood tax plan. We found out only last Friday that National plans to take $2 billion off those on benefits, including disabled people, to help fund its tax cuts. Our most marginalised would suffer while rich landlords get even richer.”
“National’s tax plan would overwhelmingly enrich those who already have significant assets – while harming those with the least. National should scrap their unfair and unreliable tax plans which are balanced on the backs of the most vulnerable. They shouldn’t have to pay the price of National’s plan.”
Disabled community advocate Henrietta Bollinger said this policy was unaffordable for disabled people and their whānau.
“It completely fails to account for the reality of disability, the number of barriers we face in housing, education, employment, or healthcare that may lead us to rely on welfare. It completely fails to account for the hidden costs of disability.
“It also completely fails to recognise the financial pressures disabled people are already under. Instead of choosing to stand with around 24% of the population, their families, and communities National are choosing as a prospective governing party to stand with a privileged few.”
Systemic advocate Rhonda Swenson, who is on a supported living benefit, said the proposed changes will see disabled people falling further behind.
“For me, $17,000 is just under a year’s salary. It just makes it harder in terms of buying food and the basics.
“It makes me angry, it means they’re not valuing the people at the bottom. The disabled community deserves to be respected. [These cuts] will tip some people over the edge. They will make people more desperate.”
What is the size of tax cuts for Mega-Landlords under National’s tax plan?
National’s policy is to restore interest deductibility for rentals in 25% steps, until it is fully restored from 1 April 2026.
Nicola Willis has today agreed with NZCTU analysis that shows less than 0.2% of New Zealand households will receive the advertised $252 a fortnight rate claimed by National.
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff also agreed with Willis, in her belief that the NZCTU must stand for working people.
“That is exactly why we won’t back anyone who wants to strip away Fair Pay Agreements from hundreds of thousands of New Zealand’s lowest paid workers.
“We won’t support anyone who wants to reintroduce 90-day trials – something the Treasury has shown doesn’t work and leads to insecurity and exploitation. We won’t support people who don’t support increases in the Minimum Wage”.
“We won’t support a tax plan that is balanced by taking $2 billion from 350,000 low-income New Zealanders on benefits. We won’t back a plan that relies on making thousands of public servants redundant and cutting essential public services. We won’t back a plan that takes $2 billion out of climate change action and puts it in the pockets of landlords.”
Wagstaff said he would love to see the National Party deliver policies and programmes that would genuinely support working people across New Zealand. “But their proposed policies for the government would instead make life harder for working people right across Aotearoa.”
National has finally released its fiscal plan after much delay and it reveals a plan to cut the incomes and essential public services the poorest New Zealanders rely on, just so they can pay for tax cuts for landlords and the well-off, says NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff.
“Cutting $2 billion from benefits during a cost-of-living crisis is cruel. These are the New Zealanders who can least afford a cut and who get $2 a week if they’re lucky from National’s tax cuts, and they would lose $40 a week in benefit cuts. On top of that, National would be putting up the price of public transport and prescription drugs.
“This doesn’t just affect workers who are out of a job, it also targets disabled New Zealanders and people with chronic illnesses. Why is National attacking these Kiwis who have the least?
“Additionally, National has confirmed that it plans to strip billions out of public services that are already under huge strain with current resources. The scale of the cuts that will be required to fund National’s fiscal plan will be felt deeply whether it’s at our borders, in our justice system, protecting our environment, or in numerous other areas of public sector activity.
“National’s claims that they can save billions by firing a few comms staff (who do vital working informing and consulting with the public) is pure fiction,” said Wagstaff.
“Reducing WorkSafe’s capacity and capability is the wrong thing to be undertaking when New Zealand’s poor health and safety record is costing so many lives of working people,” said NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff.
Between June 2022 and June 2023, 71 New Zealanders died from a result of an injury at work. In addition, estimates suggest that another 750-900 workers die each year from work-related occupational diseases such as asbestosis and cancers.
“More funding is needed right now to ensure WorkSafe’s valuable mahi can continue to help ensure working New Zealanders can return home safe and healthy from work.”
While the NZCTU agrees with the intention to prioritise maintaining the existing frontline inspectorate numbers, this needs to be understood within the context of an already understaffed resource, and now the frontline inspectorate will operate with even less organisational support.
In addition, WorkSafe have an array of core legislative functions which are beyond simply ensuring compliance with minimum standards, such as establishing codes of practice and best practice guidance on how work safely, data analysis and providing research and education.
Following the Pike River Mine tragedy, the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety called for a regulator that had both the mandate and resources to be a visible and effective best practice regulator.
“Reducing WorkSafe’s capacity now risks going back to how things were in the lead up to Pike.
“These proposed cuts will only make it much harder for New Zealand to make real progress in turning around its poor health and safety record,” said Wagstaff.
“What is really worrying is that National and Act are threatening to make even more cuts at WorkSafe and across the public service to fund their tax cuts for landlords and others.
“When cuts are made to public services, there are real consequences as this exercise at WorkSafe shows. The scale of cuts demanded by National and ACT would have a huge impact on public services New Zealanders rely on – there is no doubt that hospitals, schools, and many other services are at risk.
“You just can’t cut public services and expect better results – WorkSafe’s proposals for restructuring are a clear warning of the consequences of that,” said Wagstaff.
The economy is in stronger than expected shape, with official figures showing GDP growing at an annual rate of 3.2% says NZCTU Economist Craig Renney.
“The June quarter result is an encouraging sign of the underlying strength of the economy,” said Renney.
“The data also confirms that the economy was not in a recession, showing flat growth instead. When taken together with strong employment data, strong wage growth, and falling inflation, this data does not support those who are seeking to paint a picture of a struggling economy. They are wrong.”
“The data shows that the economy is now 9.2% larger than it was at the start of COVID-19. Quarterly growth was stronger than had been forecast by ANZ, ASB, Westpac, RBNZ, and the Treasury forecasts just last week. Growth was widespread, with 14 of the 16 sectors of the economy showing annual output growth. Exports were 13.1% higher than in June last year, again showing the New Zealand economy competing successfully on the world stage.
“This data is welcome news. The New Zealand economy is growing even with strong population growth. GDP per capita rose 2.2% last year. International experts such as Standard & Poor have said that New Zealand has ‘excellent institutions, a wealthy economy and moderate public indebtedness’. We can now add that it also has a growing economy, and no recession despite huge international economic challenges.
“We are in good shape and while there may still be dark clouds ahead, the underlying picture is one of an economy that has weathered the post-COVID environment better than many expected.”