Category: Unions

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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.”

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Secondary principals survey an accurate reflection of top concerns

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

“Three years of COVID disruptions, increasing concerns about climate change and the relentless influence of social media has resulted in increasing numbers of our students feeling vulnerable and anxious. Stress, depression and anxiety cannot be left at the school gate and are not conducive to learning.

“Helping rangatahi realise their potential and giving them the knowledge, skills and opportunities they need to live their best lives are what principals live for. Schools will pull out all stops to help students who are at risk and in need. We need more pastoral staffing in our schools to work with vulnerable students and their families and alternative education services to help them as much as possible to stay engaged with education – once they disengage it’s often very difficult to get them back.”

Kate Gainsford said the report had correctly identified teacher recruitment as another burning issue for principals. “There are serious problems with recruiting graduates into secondary teaching.

Every secondary student deserves  a subject specialist teacher and when schools are not able to provide that, it keeps principals awake at night. The Ministry needs to take its responsibilities for workforce planning very seriously.”

She was not surprised that the report found many principals were concerned about the management of the NCEA and curriculum changes. “The support and resourcing has been slow and piecemeal and teachers and ākonga deserve much better. Of course schools are doing everything they can to make the best of a sub-optimal situation. I sincerely hope that the voices of concern will begin to be heard. We all need to be able to have absolute confidence in our national curriculum and qualification.”

The pressure of these issues on principals aligns with the finding that only nine percent find their workload manageable. “Acute issues with vulnerable students, endless recruitment and having to untangle the NCEA change process chews up the hours in a day, leaving many principals working long hours to keep up. More structured and systematic support for leadership as well as resolving issues with the teacher shortage would go a long way to make workloads more manageable.”

National survey of secondary school principals

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Massive price hikes in DP World Australian ports must scuttle Auckland port privatization plans

Source: Maritime Union of New Zealand

DP World, the global port operator linked to a privatisation agenda at the Port of Auckland, is embroiled in controversy in Australia after massive price hikes for port users.

Terminal fees are set to jump more than 50% at DP World’s Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney operations, leading to one freight industry manager describing the situation as “daylight robbery”.

The price hit also led to Australia’s former competition watchdog chair, Graeme Samuel, saying the Government needed to take control of the model of privatisation that had led to “rampant high prices”.

Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Craig Harrison says the news confirm findings in a report released in September 2023 by the Union that warned of major price hikes on freight if Port of Auckland was privatised.

Mr Harrison says the Union had accurately predicted the failure of the previous automation project at Port of Auckland, and it did not want to be proved right about port privatisation.

He says Auckland City needs to immediately dump any proposals to privatise the Port of Auckland, unless it wanted to wreck the local economy.

Mr Harrison says the DP World in Australia is currently at war with freight businesses, importers, exporters and their workforce.

“Do we really want to hand over a strategic asset and natural monopoly to this type of outfit?”

Protected industrial action is ongoing in Australian ports, with the Australian Council of Trade Unions last month calling on DP World to ‘return to good faith bargaining and abandon their attacks on hard working maritime workers in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle.’

More bad news about the practices of the multinational came out in a report released this week in Australia, showing DP World in Australia paid zero income tax in Australia over the last eight years, despite revenues of over $4.5 billion in that period.

A poll released by the Maritime Union on 11 October showed an overwhelming majority of Aucklanders wanted the Port of Auckland kept in public ownership.

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Does DP World dodge taxes? Port giant under spotlight

Source: Maritime Union of New Zealand

The multinational involved in the proposed privatisation of Port of Auckland is the subject of a new Australian report “Does DP World dodge taxes in Australia?”

The report is published by The Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR).

Key findings show DP World in Australia paid zero income tax in Australia over the last eight years, despite revenues of over $4.5 billion in that period.

DP World appears to have used complex methods to artificially reduce taxable income and shift income offshore, according to the report.

Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Craig Harrison says Aucklanders should be watching closely what is happening with DP World across the Tasman.

Protected industrial action has recently taken place in Australian ports, with the Australian Council of Trade Unions last month calling on DP World to ‘return to good faith bargaining and abandon their attacks on hard working maritime workers in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle.’

“Selling a strategic asset and natural monopoly like Port of Auckland to a global operator like DP World would be leaving a vampire in charge of the blood bank.”

Mr Harrison says the disturbing record of DP World in Australia can be compared with the positive situation in Port of Auckland.

He says with new management working with the Union at the Port of Auckland, there have been rapidly improving returns for the people of Auckland.

“Why would we want to mess with this successful Port?”

The Australian tax report on DP World follows on from a report released in September 2023 by the Maritime Union of New Zealand that warned of major price hikes on freight going through a privatised Port of Auckland.

A poll released by the Maritime Union on 11 October showed an overwhelmingly majority of Aucklanders wanted the Port of Auckland kept in public ownership.

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NZCTU calls on Supie investors to pay up

Source: Council of Trade Unions – CTU

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.”

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Unions Welcome Back Officers After NZCTU Election

Source: Council of Trade Unions – CTU

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.

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Dark Cloud Hangs Over Labour Day As National And ACT Poised To Attack Workers’ Rights

Source: Council of Trade Unions – CTU

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.

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New members of the National Executive – E tū

Source: Etu Union

Congratulations to our three new members of the E tū National Executive, who won the elections held at our Biennial Membership Meetings. 

 Don Pryde – South Island Vice President

Nia Bartley – Central Region Representative

Vivien Welland – Northern Region Representative

 Don, Nia, and Vivien will now join the other members of the National Executive in overseeing the day-to-day operations of our union.

We acknowledge all candidates who put themselves forward in these elections and all the union members who came to meetings during September and October to vote. We are a proudly democratic union. 

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TAIC report into 2022 port deaths

Source: Maritime Union of New Zealand

The Maritime Union of New Zealand has welcomed the release today of a combined report by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) on two separate fatal accidents in New Zealand ports in 2022.

Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Craig Harrison says the Union endorses the findings of the report and its recommendations.

“This hard hitting report comes out of the tragic, unnecessary and untimely deaths of two loved and respected port workers simply going about their work.”

Mr Harrison says the Union agrees with the acknowledgement of the TAIC report that the stevedoring industry has a poor safety record, yet is not rigorously regulated compared to other high-risk industries.

The TAIC report found similarities in the lead up to the fatal accidents, where both employers had been improving their safety systems, but had common deficiencies.

The report noted with no best practice guidelines, no minimum training requirements and few safety-related information-sharing platforms, industry sector leadership was lacking.

The report also emphasized the importance of proactive regulatory oversight of high-risk industries, particularly those with a poor safety record.

Mr Harrison says many of the issues noted in the report were the outcomes of decades of industry deregulation, where the voice of workers had been silenced in favour of commercial priorities.

He says there is now a shift, as progress around health and safety had been made recently in the industry with the support of the outgoing Government.

The creation of a Port Health and Safety Leadership Group (PHSLG) under the leadership of Maritime New Zealand had brought in employers and union worker representatives, he says.

Primary responsibility for most areas of port health and safety is in the process of being designated as under the oversight of Maritime New Zealand, whereas it was previously divided between two regulators.

Mr Harrison says the current development of a national Approved Code of Practice for port operations with the input of the PHSLG was another major step.

A Stevedoring Code of Practice was already in place at Port of Auckland, that had been put together by POAL, two private stevedoring companies, and the Maritime Union.

Mr Harrison says this contrasts with previous management at the Port which had not engaged with the Union.  

This progress went some way to meet the TAIC report call for industry collaboration and benchmarking improve safety standards, he says.

Mr Harrison says the cost to get change has been far too high, and workers needed to organize and unionize to ensure their safety and wellbeing came first on the job.

“We are concerned the new Government does not attempt to return to the failed industry deregulation and weak oversight of the past.”

Background details to TAIC report

The first accident occurred on 19 April 2022 at the Port of Auckland. A stevedore, working onboard the container vessel Capitaine Tasman, moved underneath a suspended 40-foot container and suffered crush injuries as a result of the container being lowered onto them. The stevedore was employed by Wallace Investments Limited (WIL), an independent stevedoring company operating at the Port of Auckland.

The second accident occurred at Lyttelton Port on 25 April 2022. A stevedore, involved in the process of loading coal onto the bulk carrier ETG Aquarius, was discovered, deceased, on the deck of the vessel, buried under a quantity of coal. The stevedore was employed by the Lyttelton Port Company Limited (LPC).

In New Zealand, there have been 18 deaths amongst port workers since 2012, which is proportionally the second highest rate of fatalities of any industry sector within New Zealand.