Category: Employment Issues

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NZCTU Supports The 65,000 Care Workers Impacted By Pay Equity Claim

Source: Council of Trade Unions – CTU

The NZCTU strongly supports unions, including the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi, E tū, National Union of Public Employees, and New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa, in filing a second pay equity claim for 65,000 care and support workers.

“This claim addresses ongoing underpayment fuelled by gender-based discrimination in a sector where a pay equity settlement is long overdue.

“It is now urgent that employers and government support this claim process to a speedy conclusion, with the Care and Support Settlement Act set to expire on December 31,” said Melissa Ansell-Bridges, NZCTU Secretary.

“This highly skilled and essential workforce needs proper recognition for the work they do.

“The claim covers workers in home-based support services, aged residential care, mental health, addictions, and disability support services. It follows unacceptable delays in the original claim.

“Workers have been left waiting for far too long for that injustice to be rectified, going to work every day knowing they’re paid less than what they’re worth.”

As the Care and Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Act 2017 approaches its expiration, the NZCTU urges the incoming Government to intervention to ensure fair wages for this dedicated workforce.

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Asbestos prosecutions highlight room to improve

Source: Worksafe New Zealand

WorkSafe New Zealand says two recent court cases show Aotearoa still has a long way to get asbestos management right.

Asbestos remains the country’s number one work-related killer, with about 220 people dying each year from preventable asbestos-related disease. 

Asbestos Awareness Week runs until 26 November and aims to remind tradies and businesses of the dangers, and how to manage the risks of the known carcinogen. 

The latest WorkSafe prosecution involves Wilson Building Timaru Limited. The company was fined last month for the unauthorised removal of asbestos by the company director, which put workers at high risk of asbestos exposure over several days. The company did not seek an asbestos management plan from the building owner at any point. The asbestos should have been removed by a licensed expert. 

Earlier in the year, Inspired Enterprises Limited was sentenced over a case of poorly handled flooring containing asbestos. There was no asbestos management plan, and the customer’s quote did not mention the possibility of asbestos. 

Both cases highlight concerning gaps that fall well short of best practice. 

“In New Zealand, businesses have a responsibility to manage the risks to their workers associated with asbestos,” says the Head of WorkSafe’s General Inspectorate, Tracey Conlon. 

WorkSafe requires asbestos management plans to be in place for workplaces where asbestos or asbestos-containing material has been identified or is likely to be present. 

“The health consequences seen today are the legacy of historic exposure to asbestos, often while at work. Actions taken today will help prevent yourself, workers and others being harmed by asbestos-related disease in the future,” says Tracey Conlon. 

WorkSafe has a broad range of advice and guidance online about managing asbestos-related risks, including what businesses are required to do to manage asbestos exposure risks. 

Read more about Asbestos Awareness Week 
Read more about the case against Inspired Enterprises Limited 
Read more about the case against Wilson Building Timaru Limited

Media contact details

For more information you can contact our Media Team using our media request form. Alternatively, you can:

Phone: 021 823 007 or

Email: media@worksafe.govt.nz

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Truck driver death due to poor traffic management

Source: Worksafe New Zealand

Businesses need to keep their workers safe around vehicles and doing so can save lives, says WorkSafe New Zealand following the sentencing of a Southland business today.

McLellan Freight Limited was contracted to load and unload palm kernel extract at a warehouse leased from South Port in Bluff. In turn, McLellan Freight contracted trucks and drivers from Transport Services Southland Limited and Herberts Transport Limited.

One of those drivers was standing behind his truck when he was struck and killed, as another driver was reversing a front-end loader in February 2017.

“Clear separation of workers and moving vehicles is an absolute must in workplaces. Designated safe zones for people, alongside bollards or barriers to control the traffic flow are cost-effective ways to keep safe,” says WorkSafe’s acting national manager of investigations, Catalijne Pille.

A WorkSafe investigation found McLellan Freight should have had a more effective system in place for traffic management and should have consulted with the other trucking firms it worked with to manage the risks.

“Too much emphasis was placed on workers being vigilant, as opposed to businesses managing risks by preventing dangerous situations for workers. More could and should have been done by way of traffic management to ensure a safe system of work,” says Catalijne Pille.

Several measures could have reduced the risk of harm. These include:

  • having a dedicated spotter to help guide the driver at all times;
  • a stop line or safety cone so drivers know exactly where to stop;
  • use of a reversing camera on the loader;
  • use of proximity sensors;
  • use of blue light indicators on vehicles as appropriate

Following a judge-alone trial in June 2023, McLellan Freight was found guilty of health and safety failures.

Transport Services Southland Limited and Herberts Transport Limited pleaded guilty and were sentenced in October 2022 for their involvement.

Read more about managing worksite traffic

Read the sentencing decision for Transport Services Southland Limited and Herberts Transport Limited

Background:

  • McLellan Freight Limited was sentenced at Invercargill District Court on 16 November 2023.
  • A fine of $577,500 was imposed, and reparations of $115,896 ordered
  • McLellan Freight was charged under sections 34(1) and 2(b), 36(1)(a), 48(1) and (2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015:
    • being a PCBU, failed to ensure so far as was reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers who worked for Transport Services Southland Limited while he was at work in the business or undertaking and that failure exposed [the victim] to a risk of serious injury arising from vehicles used while loading and unloading palm kernel expeller.
    • Being a PCBU who had a duty in relation to workers undertaking the loading, unloading, and transportation of palm kernel expeller at ADM New Zealand Ltd’s facility, failed to, so far as was reasonably practicable, consult, co-operate with, and co-ordinate activities with all other PCBUs who had a duty in relation to the same matter.
  • The maximum penalty is a fine not exceeding $1.5 million.

Media contact details

For more information you can contact our Media Team using our media request form. Alternatively, you can:

Phone: 021 823 007 or

Email: media@worksafe.govt.nz

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85 Auckland businesses checked in exploitation crackdown

Source: Employment New Zealand

The three-day operation, carried out jointly with Immigration Compliance and Investigations, followed formal complaints being lodged against the retail and hospitality businesses spread across Auckland.

“We take migrant exploitation seriously. This operation is a tangible example of that commitment to follow up on alleged breaches of minimum employment standards and exploitative practices,” said Simon Humphries, Head of Compliance and Enforcement, Labour Inspectorate.

He said the operation had been valuable in helping the Inspectorate and Immigration Compliance and Investigations gauge levels of compliance by Auckland businesses operating in the retail and hospitality sectors.

“The intent was to educate where possible but also to hold accountable employers who are deliberately exploiting migrants.

“Our focus was on ensuring employers were complying with minimum employment standards by paying people the right minimum wage, holiday pay, leave entitlements and maintaining proper record keeping practices,” Humphries said.

The compliance operation forms part of a broader national strategy for the Labour Inspectorate to take a graduated and proportionate approach to gaining sustained compliance by using a suite of interventions including proactive education and information-focused approach. This will increase the knowledge of businesses operating in the retail and hospitality sectors on how to get employment law right, how to access help when problems arise, and improve compliance and awareness of the Labour Inspectorate.

“Some of the businesses were found to be non-compliant with lower-level breaches such a poor recordkeeping. It’s encouraging these businesses are now working with Labour Inspectorate to ensure they have better employment practices.

“However, there were also other instances where we were disappointed to find serious breaches in minimum employment standards,” Simon Humphries said.

High levels of non-compliance were found among the businesses visited.

Breaches uncovered included:

  • wages below the minimum wage rate being paid
  • no employment contracts for employees
  • inadequate or no record keeping
  • employee holiday and leave entitlements being withheld
  • breaches of visa conditions
  • employers demanding money from employees.

Humphries said enforcement action will be taken against businesses where issues of “deliberate non-compliance and exploitative practices” were uncovered.

“At this stage, we expect between 12 and 15 infringement notices will be issued which could lead to some accredited employers being placed on the standdown list.”

Immigration New Zealand and the Labour Inspectorate are working with migrant communities to keep them safe from those who would exploit the conditions of their work visas.

Anyone concerned about their employment conditions are encouraged to contact MBIE through the MBIE contact centre on 0800 20 90 20.

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Difficult tax choices ahead for National in talks with NZ First and Act

Source: Council of Trade Unions – CTU

2pm on Friday, November 3 will go down as one of the moments in New Zealand’s political history reminiscent of Sliding Doors. Up until that point, National and Act were on track to form a government with very similar ideological and fiscal aims. Upfront tax cuts would be financed by reduced investment in public services. There would be a greater role for the market in the public sphere and a more relaxed set of labour regulations. After 2pm, New Zealand First became a required partner. That makes life much harder for National and Act, as it brings a very different political perspective and a different set of financial requirements.

The centrepiece of National’s election campaign was $14.6 billion of income and landlord tax cuts. Some $3b of that was financed by a new tax on overseas property buyers. That’s now all but certainly gone, as it is unthinkable that NZ First would tolerate the sale of Kiwi houses to overseas buyers. Filling the gap left by the loss of that new tax would require a doubling of the indicated cuts to the public service – to 17 per cent.

That’s not feasible either, politically or practically. So, the promise to return a range of tax benefits for landlords will probably have to go. In a cost of living crisis, providing these made little economic sense to begin with. They put money in the pockets of those who have already done really well over the past two decades, yet the cuts deliver small (if any) value to the taxpayer or the economy.

Then there are other issues that need to be considered. National’s tax cut package also relies on the delivery of $2.1b of savings from ending building depreciation for commercial properties. Labour campaigned on this too. But NZ First has campaigned repeatedly on the need to provide additional depreciation support – particularly for small businesses. There’s a big cost to that. That $2.1b in savings starts to look like a tempting target for a policy that would be welcomed by the business community and would improve our chronic business investment problem.

The loss of both foreign buyers and commercial building depreciation would put a cumulative $5.1b hole in the tax plan. However, the coalition negotiations are likely to throw up other areas where the parties differ. Both National and Act have campaigned on removing what remains of regional growth funding within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. But that is likely to be an anathema to NZ First, who have championed the creation of a new Regional Productivity Growth Fund. If it were even half the size of the previous Provincial Growth Fund, that would require funding of $2b across the forecast period.

Funding this could come from the closure of the Climate Emergency Response Fund – which generates $2.3b according to National, and is to be used for tax cuts. Instead, it could be used to deliver energy security programmes across New Zealand. Fuel security is a key policy for NZ First, and it would also have the benefit of supporting job security and greater economic security in regions. But the gap in the plan is now $7.4b.

Taking that out of the tax plan would leave $7.2b remaining. That’s not enough to deliver even Simon Bridges’ policy of moving tax brackets to reflect inflation – it’s $1.8b short. And that’s before Treasury has adjusted the figures to account for faster-than-anticipated wage growth. This could be found from the remaining allowances, but in the first Budget, that would likely leave only $600 million for all new spending. Just keeping the lights on in education will consume all of that, something that National has promised repeatedly on the campaign trail. After that, there’s nothing left.

That also means the benefits of National’s tax cuts are now seriously diminished. A fulltime minimum wage worker would get $2.15 a week – not $12 a week. The support for families with early childhood education costs would be gone. The number of families getting $250 a fortnight in support from the Government wouldn’t be 3000. It would be zero.

All of this shows the challenges facing the three parties in pulling together a package that allows them to work together. What it also suggests is that rather than rushing headlong into tax and other changes at a December mini-Budget, some caution and restraint would be appropriate. The parties could spend a little more time working out what is actually needed, and how they will deliver that, without borrowing extra for tax cuts.

If you want an example of the headlong approach in action, look no further than the UK and the problems the Liz Truss government faced. It famously lasted less time than it took for an iceberg lettuce to wilt. Rushing to deliver tax cuts now for ideological purposes is likely to haunt all involved and will likely require painful changes in the future. The title track of the movie Sliding Doors is called Turn Back Time. The incoming Finance Minister might well be whistling that tune if they can’t get it right over the next few weeks.

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Worker’s electric shock was preventable

Source: Worksafe New Zealand

An electric shock which cost an Auckland scaffolder both his arms could have been avoided if his employer had paid closer attention to who was authorised to do the work.

Jahden Nelson was dismantling scaffolding in April 2022, when a steel pole he was holding contacted an overhead powerline in the West Auckland suburb of Massey.

As a result of the incident, Jahden received high voltage electrical burns to his upper and lower limbs, including an exit wound of the electrical charge through his left foot. Both arms were amputated to the upper bicep, and he will need daily assistance for routine activities for the rest of his life given the nature of his injuries.

The employer, CPA 2022 Limited, has now been sentenced for its health and safety failures.

The worksite had been given a Close Approach Consent, which is required when work is being done near overhead powerlines. The consent required the crew that put up the scaffolding to be the same crew that took it down, for safety reasons.

However, WorkSafe found that none of the four-man dismantling crew (including Jahden Nelson) had been involved at the outset. The initial crew received a briefing on how workers could safely operate under high-voltage lines, but not the dismantling crew.

Companies need to make sure that expert information they receive is shared with all workers who need it.

“Jahden was a young man who went to work fit and healthy, and now has an ongoing struggle to adjust to a fundamentally different way of life. His attitude, bravery, and determination to keep going is a testament to his strength of character,” says WorkSafe’s area investigation manager, Paul West.

“Anyone working in or around electricity, especially high voltage lines, needs to be aware of the specific requirements that come with Close Approach Consents. Lines companies can assist with the consent process if needed.

“For a seemingly simple communication breakdown to have such far-reaching consequences is horrendous,” says Paul West.

Read WorkSafe’s good practice guidelines for scaffolding in New Zealand

Background

  • CPA 2022 Limited was sentenced at Waitakere District Court on 13 November 2023.
  • Fine reduced to $0 due to the company’s inability to pay. Details of the reparations were suppressed by the Court.
  • CPA 2022 was charged under sections 36(1)(a) and 48(1) and (2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015:
    • Being a PCBU having a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers who work for the PCBU, including Jahden Nelson, while the workers are at work in the business or undertaking, namely dismantling scaffolding, did fail to comply with that duty and that failure exposed workers to a risk of death or serious injury arising from the interaction between workers and overhead electric lines.
  • The maximum penalty is a fine not exceeding $1.5 million.

Media contact details

For more information you can contact our Media Team using our media request form. Alternatively, you can:

Phone: 021 823 007 or

Email: media@worksafe.govt.nz

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Industrial action to begin at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare – E tū

Source: Etu Union

Workers at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare’s manufacturing site in Auckland have voted to take industrial action, beginning tomorrow, as the company refuses to improve their offer which includes insufficient pay rises and a loss of important conditions.

The current offer from the company includes the removal of overtime pay for working on weekends, and shift pattern changes that will further reduce overtime pay for many workers. The pay rises offered do not make up for these changes, sitting around the rate of inflation, meaning workers aren’t able to get ahead.

E tū members will be picketing outside the factory in the mornings and afternoons from Monday to Friday this week. The union will give notice of an overtime ban, to begin in two weeks. If there is no improvement to the offer, members are prepared to take strike action and stop work completely.

E tū delegate and engineer Chris Burton, who first started with Fisher & Paykel 38 years ago, says the company’s actions do not match its good reputation.

“It’s a real shame that one of New Zealand’s greatest companies is behaving like this,” Chris says.

“They have got a long history of doing the right thing, and over the years I have been able to do well myself, but that’s not a luxury many of my colleagues are afforded.

“There used to be a culture of lifting people up through development opportunities, and proper investment in staff. We trained a lot of people. But they now have some ugly agendas and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare just aren’t doing that to the extent they should be.

“There are over 3,000 people at the Auckland site. We should expect a company like this to give something back to the wider community, and not just tokenism.”  

Chris says the people worst affected by the proposed deal are those who are doing it hardest.

“They are playing on people’s hardship. I think it’s extremely cheeky to come to us with something like this while many are in financial stress, with rents, mortgages, fuel, and everything else getting so much more expensive.

“The reality is that a majority of the staff on lower wages are women. They claim to pay attention to diversity and inclusion – here’s a real opportunity to put their money where their mouth is and show the rest of the country how to get real results in closing the gender pay gap.”

Chris says it’s particularly disappointing that the company are taking this approach given it is a highly profitable business.

“We were one of the few New Zealand businesses that did well during the pandemic, due to the increased demand for healthcare products. When you are posting record profits year after year and then you come calling for the lowest paid people in the organisation to take the biggest hit, that’s not good enough.”

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Future uncertain for NZ Post workers across the country – E tū

Source: Etu Union

An estimated 750 people could lose their jobs at NZ Post if a proposal for major changes at the state-owned enterprise goes through as currently signalled.

The radical changes would see the end of the nightshift at the Christchurch Mail Centre, with some members losing up to 30% of their pay. The International Mail Centre and Auckland Operations Centre are facing a ‘dumbing down’ of their roles which would also see their pay reduced and could potentially impact future redundancy compensation.

Further, NZ Post are proposing to move their delivery workers into a contracting model, meaning they would not get the benefits and protections of being directly employed.

Christchurch Mail Centre delegate Nelson Tainui says the workers are feeling the pressure.
“As with all change, it’s the fear of the uncertain, and what it means for everyone’s own individual circumstances,” Nelson says.

“It’s the initial stages of a business-wide change, the breadth and depth of which is still to be determined. We are just one cog in a rather large machine.”

E tū Negotiation Specialist Joe Gallagher says NZ Post isn’t living up to their social responsibility as a state-owned enterprise.

“NZ Post should be modelling the best practices as a large employer delivering an essential service for Aotearoa New Zealand,” Joe says.

“Instead, they want to join the ranks of the bottom-feeding courier companies who exploit their workers to provide the services at the lowest possible cost.

“It’s particularly galling from a state-owned enterprise, because they should live up to a responsibility to their workers and the wider community by making decent work a priority.

“E tū members have a long and proud history of protecting NZ Post both in the interests of the workforce and to maintain delivery of an excellent service. We will be fighting to protect Post once again.”

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Unions welcome a new model for employing staff in the water sector – E tū

Source: Etu Union

Members of AWUNZ, E tū, and the PSA have endorsed a multi-union, multi-employer collective agreement that will help improve water services, overcome critical staff shortages, and ensure decent workplaces for everyone working in the industry.

“This is a historic opportunity to work collaboratively with the incoming government to build a workforce that will improve public health,” says Blake Monkley, AWUNZ lead organiser.

“This collective agreement provides career pathways that can attract people to an industry that desperately needs to attract and develop a skilled workforce.”

“Events including widespread flooding, the recent cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Queenstown and sink holes in Auckland show an industry in crisis,” says Ian Gordon, PSA National Sector Lead.

“To respond to this crisis, the country needs a skilled, sustainable water workforce. Without the provisions of this agreement, the industry will keep losing skilled workers it already has and won’t be able to recruit and develop new ones. This agreement is a huge victory for workers and Aotearoa.”

The benefits for workers are clear. “A national employment framework will create clear career paths that will draw people to the industry and keep them there. It will allow the industry to focus on training and developing staff across the industry instead of in isolated pockets,” says Amy Hansen from E tū.

“While negotiating this agreement, it has become increasingly apparent how damaging a fractured approach to employment relations has been to retaining and developing the workforce we need.

“The incoming government needs to recognise how essential the provisions of this agreement are, and it needs to treat workers justly as well, no matter what happens with the water reforms.”

The Amalgamated Workers Union NZ (AWUNZ), E tū, and the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi (PSA) represent workers across water management, including technicians, engineers, electricians, administrators, fitters, reticulation workers water, and wastewater treatment operators, local and central government officials, and more.

For two years, the unions worked with members and non-members in the workforce, and the Department of Internal Affairs, to find best path forward. The membership of all three unions have now endorsed this approach by supporting the proposed agreement.

Some useful numbers

  • There is currently a shortage of skilled staff with vacancy rates sitting at approximately 15% across the industry
  • Economic analysis projects that the industry will need 6,000 to 9,000 jobs over the next 30 years.
  • Unions in the sector represent approximately 1850 employees across a wide range of occupations.
  • There are currently 87 collective agreements covering impacted workers with a wide range of different conditions.

ENDS

For more information please contact Hamish McCracken (AWUNZ)
Phone: 0212885609
Email: hamish.mccracken@awunz.org.nz

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WorkSafe cuts highlight how New Zealanders will be worse off from axing public sector jobs.

Source: Council of Trade Unions – CTU

News of WorkSafe’s confirmed organisational changes should be seen as a stark warning about the impact of cuts to public services says the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.

“It beggars belief that WorkSafe will do a better job with such a significant decrease to staffing resource,” said NZCTU Secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges.

“This will have direct consequences for businesses and communities – a slimmed down WorkSafe means it will not be able to do the same job of keeping working people safe at work”.

“Our track record of workplace deaths and injuries is not something to be proud of. Axing 113 jobs at the health and safety regulator isn’t the right decision for the health and safety system in New Zealand.”

71 workers didn’t return home from work between June 2022 and June 2023. That represents 71 parents, children, friends and whānau members that were killed on the job in New Zealand workplaces. 71 families and communities devastated by these deaths. A further 750 – 900 workers died during this period from the impact of work-related occupational diseases such as asbestosis and cancers.

“This means that on average, one worker is being killed every week at work, and each week between 15-18 workers on average will die from health-related impacts of their work.

“It is difficult to comprehend how further slashing WorkSafe will improve this alarming picture. The data speaks for itself, more resource is needed, not less.

“Maintaining the level of inspectors is important but that is only one of WorkSafe’s core functions and their ability to be an effective inspectorate is supported by other important functions in the organisation which are now being lost.

“The NZCTU will continue to advocate for WorkSafe to be properly resourced and calls on the incoming Government to provide WorkSafe with sufficient resources to meet all its legislative functions. Failure to do this, puts working peoples’ lives at risk.

“These cuts to WorkSafe provide a bleak picture of the reality of the incoming Government’s proposed deep and savage cuts to the wider public service for working New Zealanders. It means poorer services that they, and their whānau, rely on every day.”