The Government has agreed to introduce legislation that could force employers to engage in collective bargaining.
The legislation will set out a process for workers and employers to negotiate Fair Pay Agreements (FPA), including minimum standards everyone in the sector has to comply with.
The Government has also agreed to help cover the costs of negotiations for up to four FPAs a year.
The Council for Trade Unions (CTU) is over the moon, saying the introduction of FPAs signals the biggest change to workplace laws in several decades.
BusinessNZ is outraged, arguing the proposal is “against international law, which says collective agreements should always be negotiated voluntarily”.
The Government recognises there will likely be employers and employees bound by the terms of an agreement negotiated by unions or employer organisations they aren't affiliated with.
But it considers applying FPAs to all employees and employers within a particular occupation or industry “necessary” to achieving minimum standards.
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood said FPAs will “improve wages and conditions for employees, encourage businesses to invest in training, as well as level the playing field so that good employers don’t get undercut and disadvantaged”.
The Government will now draft legislation, which will be introduced later this year, and is expected to pass in 2022.
DETAILS
- What will be covered by FPAs?
All FPAs must include certain topics like base wage rates, ordinary hours, overtime and penalty rates. Some other topics must be discussed but don’t have to be agreed, like redundancy, leave, and health and safety. Other employment terms can be included if the bargaining sides agree.
Contractors aren't currently included, but the Government plans to bring them under the regime.
- How is the process started?
Unions initiate the FPA process. They need the support of either 10% or 1000 workers in the industry.
Alternatively, they could start the process if the Employment Relations Authority decides they meet a “public interest test”.
Employers must engage in the process via their chosen representatives.
A FPA can allow for exemptions for businesses in “significant financial hardship”.
- What support will the Govt provide?
The Government will give each bargaining side $50,000. Additional funds will also be available for unions or industry groups with low memberships.
The Government will make this funding available for four FPAs a year. If more pop up, the Employment Relations Authority will decide who gets the funding.
The CTU and BusinessNZ will also each be given $250,000 a year for three years to support their coordination roles in the FPA system.
- What needs to be happen for an agreement to be reached?
A majority in favour of the proposal on both sides of the bargaining table is needed for the FPA to be ratified.
Employers have one vote per employee in coverage, with slightly higher vote weighting for employers with fewer than 20 employees in coverage.
If a first ratification vote fails, parties go back to bargaining.
If a second vote fails, the FPA goes to the Employment Relations Authority for determination
Once finalised, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will make secondary legislation to bring the FPA into force.
REACTION
- Public Service Association
"All too often, employers compete for contracts by holding down pay and undermining conditions in an endless race to the bottom...
"Fair Pay Agreements do not replace existing employment agreements. Instead, they can be the bedrock from which workers negotiate terms and conditions that go beyond those in particular workplaces...
"The PSA argues FPA should be viewed as an extension of previous achievements like 2017’s Care and Support Pay Equity Settlement.
"Unions and provider companies are now in broad agreement on the need for a fairly paid and well-trained home support workforce with secure, guaranteed hours."
- Employers and Manufacturers Association
"The EMA has no anecdotal evidence from its 7400 member businesses that employers are cutting down their costs to get contracts by paying people less, except where Government procurement has forced this outcome in areas like the provision of bus services.
"Our concern is that FPAs will result in higher wages, and the solution for businesses will be to cut down their workforce, or in the case of already struggling manufacturers and SMEs, they may have to shut up shop.
"Those at greatest risk will be the unskilled, unemployed and inexperienced - particularly our young people, because typically they are the cohorts that are impacted the most by margin pressure or downturns, as evidenced during the last 12 months."
- BusinessNZ
"BusinessNZ had engaged with the Government and unions in good faith in dialogue about the Fair Pay Agreements plan, but the problems raised by BusinessNZ had not been addressed, and business could not support the plan to implement them...
"[T]he plan to implement them should be terminated."
- CTU
"In the past year we have all clearly seen the essential work that people working in our supermarkets, our cleaners, and security guards do. But they continue to be paid the minimum wage or close to it. Wages have been driven down simply to improve profit margins...
"People working as contractors do need to be covered by Fair Pay Agreements and it’s important that the Minister has said they will be ‘as soon as possible’. We see this as essential given the figures released this week showing a significant increase in the numbers of people working as contractors."
- Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce
"Employee expectations have changed dramatically from when financial remuneration was the only benefit. While small businesses may not be able to compete with big business wages, they can compete in providing an attractive employment package through the ability to engage in meaningful work, flexible work environments and so on...
"With the introduction of FPAs, there could be a wage-price spiral, which we have seen in the past, when compulsory collective bargaining led to wage inflation and higher prices, and FPA settlements impacted other sectors, causing wage relativity pressures and increased prices. There is also the possibility of FPA claims spreading rapidly once enabling legislation is passed.
"Standardising conditions across industries and occupations, makes them less flexible, less resilient and ultimately less productive - which is not what our economy needs and especially not now given many businesses are facing the challenges of a Covid-19 environment as well."
- National Party
National raised the same issues as the business groups above, and added:
“My concerns are echoed by the Treasury in their statement: “the [Regulatory Impact Statement] acknowledges there is minimal empirical evidence for the problem or policy response.
“Labour’s so-called Fair Pay Agreements may be celebrated by unions who are struggling for survival, but they will not improve things for individual workers.
“This will see 90 per cent of a workforce at the mercy of the other 10 per cent and entire industries bound by agreements whether they participate in the FPA bargaining process or not.
“This Labour Government is growing more interventionist by the day. It has not met a problem it doesn’t think can be solved through more centralisation, regulation, bureaucracy, and more power in the hands of the Government."
- ACT
"Today’s proposal is far more radical than anything the Government has proposed before. It said it would initially be ‘one or two industries’…
“You cannot take a relic of the 1970s, dust it off, and make it stick 50 years on…
“New Zealanders have voted with their [union] membership, 70 percent to 20 percent over the past 30 years. Despite that, Michael Wood and Andrew Little won’t listen. They’re bringing back compulsory unionism whether we like it or not.
“When creating public policy, ACT always asks what is the problem we’re trying to fix? In this case there is no problem. It is a union hit on middle New Zealand who’ve said by their actions they want nothing to do with unions…
“The current law has a comprehensive range of statutory worker protections. There is a minimum wage, protection for businesses that are sold, non-discrimination laws, and dispute rules.”
For more, see this government explainer and this Cabinet paper.
184 Comments
Netherland, has some of the best football players in the world, but its soccer league is so weak. Even if NZ very good at producing smart workers, NZ is not a place for them to prosper and they will leave for places with the right economic dynamics. Just as Dutch players go to the Premier League or the La Liga or Bundes Liga or whatever
If that was the case was in NZ, we'd stop training local kids in football altogether, bring foreign players and aim for a participation trophy in the lower leagues instead.
Then we'd make those foreign players practice on the streets and sell our football grounds to residential developers.
What stop the left to start their own business venture? where all workers equally (or whatever) share the fruits of the venture? Why Uber should profit from people willing to be taxis? Why all the left is not putting their resources together and develop a business product that can work for the service provider and the customer and cut the middle man (business owners)?
All they want to do is force other to behave as they wish.
You mean those awesome broken markets like our housing market? A direct result of, yes, neoliberal economic policy that has driven our country for the last 40 years.
Market economics of the neo liberal variety has failed the majority of the citizens apart from the very wealthy. The dismantling of state economics (still capitalist although you wouldn't think it judging by the hysteria on here) has been a disaster for most of us.
Markets don't work in pandemics. We have a broken housing market. Government by democracy with democratic institutions (again - still capitalist based) provide the base and workable solutions to problems of this scale.
Your comment on central bankers is equally cliched, only from the echo chamber you inhabit. I also inhabit one too, so I'm equally guilty in that.
There is no functioning housing 'market'. You are deluding yourself. Interest rates are being suppressed: if left to market forces they would be much higher. This would mean house prices would be much lower. The state further distorts the market with deposit grants and accomodation supplements, which have only pushed up prices further. Do you think the RMA does not represent regulation? If 'neoliberalism' has stripped away all regulation then why do we have such onerous regulations? We have state economics running the cutter now, and they are a disaster. Interventionist central banks have destroyed markets, they are so distorted by state stimulus they could not function without this 'life support'. There is no genuine price discovery. It is not market economics failing, it is the system that they replaced it with by stealth: total control by central banks.
As opposed to our giant ponzi scheme that is locking first home buyers out completely and leaving others mired in debt while the housing stock accumulates in fewer and fewer rich hands?
We'll have to agree to disagree I think. Again on the housing market, if that was a true market previously according to economic trickle down theory someone would have stepped in and filled the gaps for the poor and those who need affordable housing. Didn't happen - giant market failure.
Out of interest - who do you believe is behind this giant takeover? And what do you believe is the end game?
You want to go back to the 1970's and 'gliding on' days. Complusory unionism and state control of everything. You'd love life down on Orwells 'Animal Farm' by the sound of things. The constant desire to infuse this word 'neoliberalism' with buckets of angst and make it a term on par with Nazism....it's really pathetic from the Left .
Where is the capitalism in Mad Max? Look at Mad Max II - a group of people living in a collective are being menaced by an armed group headed up by a supreme dictator. No capitalism to be seen. Only collectivism on one side and on the other the lack of individual freedom and overt violence you see in a totalitarian system.
We want a balance between freedom and government, but we don't want the state usurping market functioning, as it is causing a disaster at the moment. The more the central banks assert control, the worse the situation gets.
There are many countries that could be considered to be neo liberal, just as we are. If neo liberalism caused housing crises, it would be happening in all of them. It's not. You are saying 1+1=5 and expecting people to believe you with weak arguments.
The housing crisis in this country is caused by a raft of issues around the industry, barely any of them have to do with neo liberalism and most of the issues can be traced back 20 years or more. They mostly happened after neo liberalism began in the 80s and 90s. Most of it is caused by poor government policy in taxation, local council laws, culture, bad signalling from politicians, a central bank acting stupidly, a lazy/toothless commerce commission and various other factors. Not much of that has roots in neo liberalism.
This would mean businesses will need to shutdown, unless the government start subsidizing/protecting them. People talking about 70s and 80s seem to forget that such conditions existed when the government had monopoly over everything and protectionism a global phenomena.
That ain't going to happen. Middle class welfare is here to stay. Once you give people the socialistic lollies you can't take them off them, and the country gets deeper and deeper in debt every day. I doubt the Left care, they would love to see the system 'smashed'.
invest in automation..
Would love to see Kiwi businesses take that gigantic leap in my lifetime!
FYI Two of NZ's major retail companies still use a DOS-based ERP installed in the 80s. Why bother upgrading when cheap IT labour from India helps you keep dinosaurs alive inside your computers.
Several big businesses still have papers flying around their offices for every process, thanks once again to low-paid workers who put up with all that.
The first step should be getting Kiwi businesses to invest in a modern mindset that belongs in the 21st century.
I don't get that dude, these companies seem able to run database driven [SQL, PHP over a SSL] websites.. why can't they extend that to their instore-merchant-terminals?
Surely adding a few inventory databases, an updated user-interface coupled with ajax requests.. surely that would be easy enough? Better than what many have. Barcode scanners and the like must be plug-n-play?
How much are these old systems doing?
Because some are co-operatives and half the members run different systems sometimes...
When you supply Bunnings they are a well run corporate who own all their own stores. They allow vendors to use pdt(handheld barcode scanners) systems to take orders and refill the stock as they see fit. The vendors want the store to be fully stocked so they either provide merchandisers to do this weekly or contract this out.
When you supply Mitre 10 or Placemakers you have to wait for the Marge to raise an order...if she goes on leave or gets busy they just run out of inventory for a few weeks
Next time you are in a Placemakers store have a look at the rack for screws....it might have twenty hooks across and fifteen down so over 250 sku units.....I guarantee you 20% of the hooks will be empty....
Welcome to our low productivity economy
"Unions initiate the FPA process. They need the support of either 10% or 1000 workers in the industry."
Any union? I can see a lot of crop-dusting with employer-funded unions getting in first as soon as this is implemented, and then signing verrrrry long agreements with price floors to suit. Is there any rules about who you have to take to the dance?
For Sale: Myself and 999 like-minded individuals, with extensive experience in whatever you need, prepared to accept any bribe or inducement you offer to set a pay rate that is advantageous for your business but completely stuffs your competitors. Special discount for industry lobby groups looking to set wage ceilings with pathetic contracts to bind an entire industry's workforce into continued servitude.
We're already there. The dopey middle-of-the-road Kiwi's have been bought off with the housing Ponzi and phoney Jacindamania. One day soon they will wake up in the South Pacifics version of Venezuela and wonder what the heck happened, but they only have themselves to blame. The Unions are delighted!
Leaving vulnerable workers to be feasted by the 'free market' has worked wonders in countries like Mexico, Singapore and USA.
Ironically, most Kiwis bicker about unions but leave NZ for countries (Australia, UK and pretty much ever EU country) that have a greater union participation rates than ours.
'The Council for Trade Unions (CTU) is over the moon, saying the introduction of Fair Pay Agreements signals the biggest change to workplace laws in several decades.'
Plus: 10 days sick leave, another public holiday, minimum wage rise, growth of the public service.
Labour: born out of the Union movement, and the party leaders cannot get elected to the top spot without Union backing. This is the party of delivery alright: delivery for the Unions. They govern for and on behalf of the Unions.
Are unions bad things now? I thought they got us a 5 day, 40 hour working week, allowed our children to go to school instead of work, made working conditions safer and continue working to keep those things while also supporting more improvements and workers who need support dealing with crappy employers.
Except they won't. The fair pay conditions apply to all employees in the affected industry, and people who are in a union can get paid more, up to the additional cost of their union fees. That also means that the employers are likely to be subsidising or fully paying for the union.
Nothing about this forces anyone to join a union.
Exactly. On a previous post, a couple of commenters discussed how young people would be well advised to move to Australia (better wages). Well, Australia already has a system exactly like the one we've just introduced (the Industry award system). Oz is hardly a socialist hell hole.
5 day, 40 hour week was a great achievement.
Hey, the Sufragettes achieved great things back in the day, also the Wright brothers, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Julius Caesar etc. Maybe the descendents of these people should have their own club that runs our country through their own personal political political party?
Unions are minions of the Labour government. They are implemented to attack and forestall the enemies of the Labour in their bud. A dog should not bite the hands of the master that feeds it. So if the labour government is the oppressor, that is all cool and dandy. The attack dog must only go after whoever the master orders.
Makes me wonder if the blowback from the pay freeze was bigger than they expected, so they rushed up the announcement of this as a distraction.
But yeah, the very first question I would ask is - are the government themselves immune from fair pay agreement terms? What if a fair pay agreement requires the government to give everyone in an industry pay rises within the next 3 years?
They've got much the same over the ditch - apparently this proposed legislation was stylised on the AUS one;
Like NZ companies needed any additional incentives to go offshore
Labour unions represent 70% of wage earners in Denmark. Their collective bargaining coverage was 82% in 2016.
Yet in 2019, foreign-owned businesses contribute to 34% of the country's hi-tech exports.
By comparison, we've gone from average to now in the bottom-5 in union representation rates in OECD. How many companies has that prevented from going offshore again?
Great, really great, so now we have the great pleasure of witnessing:
- un-elected representatives of the RBNZ dictating that the NZ economy must be based on the housing Ponzi rather than on hard work and the real economy
- costs being piled on businesses, especially smaller ones
- unions dictating how individuals get paid, and to hell with merit, skills, hard work
Welcome to the Soviet Socialist Nation of New Zealand. The only small consolation would be that, had the Greens been in Government, things would have gotten worse.
What incentive do people have to take risks, invest and grow the real economy, employ other people, work hard and innovate ?
PS: I am no National supporter, as they have been abysmal (to say the least) when it comes to housing policies. They appear more interested in protecting the parasitic minority of housing specuvestors rather than fighting for the development of the real economy.
Indeed. Having grown up through the 80s and 90s in New Zealand you were raised a diet of horses*** about "getting ahead" in life through hard work, study, savings discipline, doing a good job etc.
Only to come of age into country that flogged your birthright to hoards of alien immigrants for a quick buck, where hard work is punished through taxation, the only people ahead are those who hoard and speculate on property, your savings are made worthless and the stroke of a central bankers pen, special dispensation is handed out to "oppressed groups with the right skin colour" and now a bit of compulsory unionism just to make sure nobody gets above their station by actually being skilled at something.
I always thought dystopian societies only existed in science fiction books.
Clown world.
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Instead perhaps spend some time going through a collective wage settlement. Most have only a few automatic pay increases for entry to early level workers. After this, step increases are only given out on individual performance appraisals. In some cases, workers also have to gain additional qualifications for getting non-automatic step increases.
Not only have I spent over 45 years in unionised workplaces in all roles from wage paid factory worker (& union delegate) to manager & company director I ve also negotiated many workplace agreements & coached, disciplined and sacked more people than I can remember.
Workers who refuse to join unions will become targets. The values surrounding the establishment of unions seem
innocent enough, yet people are forced to pledge to and serve union interests.
Unions are often Marxist political organizations and workers shouldn't be pressured or forced to align with such political organizations.
I joined a union (Finsec) when I was young as it was presented to me as a fait accompli when I started my first full-time job. I dropped out when I discovered I could get a much better deal bargaining for myself once I'd been promoted a couple of times.
A few years later my department was enticed back on the premise that things had changed now and "we'd be stronger as one" so we figured we'd give them a chance. My department acted as one in dropping out of the union again when we were told (by the industry union rep no less) to shut up because we were paid enough already.
I've seen them sell out long-time members for the sake of a handful of beans for newer members once the ratio tipped, rather than battling to entrench benefits that I've retained by bargaining for myself. I'm now in a far better position than anyone remaining in the union. YMMV but my experience of unions shows them to be two-faced backstabbers with delusions of power. I will do all I can to stay out of one.
ETA: On the bright side, if I'm forced to join a union I can kick back and be far less productive. Why try?
Or a contra view - Exploitation is when you legislate for a minimum wage that is set a rate higher than the productive value of the individual. Thus they are destined for lifetime of unemployment as they cannot even enter the race, let alone take part and gain skills.
The 'productive value' [of an individual] is a ruse that attempts to hide the fact that most of our lower-paid/unskilled jobs are the absolutely essential ones as witnessed during COVID lockdowns; or on orchards during harvest time; etc.
Substitute "essential services value" and you'll get the idea.
Seems like thousands of FPAs will be getting negotiated simultaneously ad infinitum.
Naturally the Govt is going to pay businesses for all the costs of negotiations eternally??
If the trigger for an FPA is only 1 in 10 wanting more dough that is what I call a hairtrigger.
In principal a much needed move.
Ever since the 1991 ECA and individual employment agreements those in low paid positions have been been particularly vulnerable with the likes of “zero hours contracts”, 32 hour flexible contracts to avoid overtime and very low pay rates.
There are plenty of lowly paid but hard workers holding two jobs still living in relative poverty and just managing to survive.
On this site, posts are dominated by well educated, relatively well paid and comfortable solely concerned and screaming about housing affordability yet, as the posts above show, giving Jack sh*t about others than themselves.
The housing crisis is not just about affordability, it is also about supply and there are many throughout the North Island living in cramped motels - this isn’t recognised in posts on this site.
Yes, there is need to address housing affordability, but also housing supply and the abysmal work and pay conditions resulting from IA.
Time some need to show a little empathy for others rather than their self-centred interest.
I'd say that the situation is clearly and transparently unfair, but what are your beloved Labour government doing to fix it? They are the party of 'fairness' after all. Or is it just 'fairness' for the CTU they are interested in?
Have they built 100,000 houses they promised as per 'KiwiBuild'? What happened with that 're-set' btw?
Have they reformed the RMA after squandering one term in government already? Any progress at all? I heard some talk, but have seen no action.
Have they forged ahead with those 'shovel ready' projects so that the connnecting infrastructure is in place?
I think it's you that must have the blinkers on mate - you're enamoured with a Union agenda being rolled out while the rest of the country rots on the vine.
You mean the median house should have a price no greater than 5 times the median wage? Should this be a single income family? a single parent with kids? two income family with or without kids? And what should be the quality of a median house? its size, location etc.
Usually the devil is in details I suppose.
A fair price reflects the market. It reflects the cost of construction and materials as well as supply and demand.
Prices are where they are now because of a number of factors most of which are caused by governments. If everybody had a fair income, where supply is short those with a greater ability to pay will still generally prevail. So you ask whats a fair price for a house, I ask you where does escalation stop if you don't address the economic conditions.
1/ The RMA that Labour refused to support National in a reform causing land shortage and excessive prices.
2/ The excessive poorly directed stimulus applied by the govt and RBNZ with low interest rates and falling returns and risk elsewhere has encouraged investment here. Cullen suggests interest rates below 2% have no added attraction for business.
3/ Welfare supplements increasing the amount renters can afford to pay thus generating acceptable returns on higher costs.
4/ Extortionate development levies, inspection and permit costs and bureaucracy adds significantly to the cost of a home.
5/ Poor infrastructure investment forcing people to live where they cannot afford to.
Brock
Yes.
You always complain about house affordability, scream that the issue to be addressed, and couldn't give Jack Sh*t about others.
Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself honestly; "Am I screaming for empathy regarding housing affordability but can't give empathy to others in greater need".
If I only I was a salt of the earth slumlord providing shelter at BeLoW mArkEt ReNtS out of the goodness of my heart. Then I could virtue signal about how much I care about others and how much a couple of percent payrise would help the poors while my properties increase in valuation by multiple amounts of what they earn in a year.
Go look yourself in the mirror and practice the concern trolling more. With enough work, somebody might buy it.
In capitalism you have to do something for someone else to earn money. There are great landlords and terrible landlords. More competition and/or less tenants will push terrible landlords out of the market..
IO Loans, RMA, Cash-Rate, etc, etc are all governmental/RBNZ issues. Start by contacting you local MP. Respecting Private-Property-Rights is key, yet even the Roman Empire had a land tax. Maybe you could attempt to sue the government if you get nowhere with your local MP, and believe "fair" translates to you being owned compensation. After that fails maybe you'll do "An Appeal to Heaven".
Are you equating union membership with some future utopia where everyone will be paid 'fairly'?
I'll believe it when I see it.
More than likely we will see Union fat cats rorting the Union dues, as per umpteen past instances that have hit the media.
I care about others, I care about lowly paid cleaners getting ripped off by Unionists who live the high life off of dues. It's like tithing!
There were 32000 houses for sale on trademe this time last year, now it is around 22,000. That is a loss of 10,000 houses. So why are they not being listed, and will they eventually come on the market? There are also lots of vacant houses, or used for air bnb etc. Apparently there are over 100,000 of these. IMO we do already have enough houses, in NZ, they are just being maxmised / used properly. Taxing vacant houses and land would be a good start at trying to fix the housing crisis. So far the government has done very little.
Fiddling while Rome burns?
New Zealand has an inefficient, low-value, low-skill economy, so let's give unions the chance to make it even less efficient.
New Zealand has a public service can't recruit enough frontline staff due to the low salaries and lack of funding, yet puts a pay-freeze in place. That'll help.
New Zealand has a shortage of affordable housing, but instead of building cheap housing to scale, we pump billions into the economy for mortgages and allow investors to push house prices even higher.
New Zealand has state highways and major arterial routes in desperate need of upgrades, or simply being built. So the Government decides to implement 80kph speed limits, or simply delay building the roads.
New Zealand had no money for any major projects 14 months ago, then suddenly found $100b to borrow and allow half the country to sit at home for a few months.
Now there's no money again.
This government is steering New Zealand towards a very sad come-uppance, and it's going to result in a very brutal and nasty solution from the right of New Zealand politics in order to get our house in order again.
Also add the climate scam this govt has foisted on us to the tune of 1.4 billion per year reducing our competitive effectiveness.
The Rhodium Group, a climate research organization based in New York, reported Thursday that China’s greenhouse gas emissions now exceed the entire rest of the developed world combined.
We're on a hiding to nothing for export competitiveness given our proximity to our markets
Indeed not but China refuses to address their emissions and the rest of the world thinks s tax will fix it.
We haven't fixed poverty homelessness or cancer but we gan do this with a tax.
Surprisingly methane not CO2 is mow the big evil. Better depopulate the planet.
China's emissions are our emissions, just because we outsourced our polluting to them, does not mean we are still not ultimately responsible for them when we buy the products of them.
As to depopulation, it is only ONE of the things we need to do to sort the mess we have made.
This is what scares me. A sharp left turn is likely to see a brutal right response. Neither is any good. But it will happen. MMP was designed to prevent these massive ideological swings but now we have a majority government, unable to execute on anything more than a press release, desperately trying to disguise its continued failure to meet its own standards.
Announcing pay freezes, changing industrial relations laws - it’s all supposed to show a government full of action, busily delivering. Labour are great at making announcements (usually about upcoming announcements) and banking easy wins like another public holiday. Meanwhile the hard stuff, the actual building of KiwiBuild houses / light rail / ‘shovel ready’ roading projects / critical infrastructure - none of it happens.
... recall that no one in this government has ever had a job in private industry .... they're all civil serpents ... except for Arderns brief stint in a fushnchup shop ... Little Andrew does have lotsa union experience , but ... the nation is at the mercy of ideologues ...
Many smaller NZ companies didn’t outsource much because they felt they needed to keep an eye on people. COVID forced remote technology and remote management onto business. All of a sudden, good managers learned how to use resource that wasn’t in the building. And it works. We have done 3 projects recently where we contracted resource from Belgium, Spain and the Philippines.
To all right wing national supporting chums on here:
why exactly do you think NZ has one of lowest median wages in OECD and so much lower than Australia?
Do you in fact know the % of wages paid in tax and tax on wealth in NZ relative to rest of OECD?
And why is that private debt in NZ is over 170% of GDP
And why is it that people on median wages cannot afford houses?
Yes: it is because wages are too low to support consumption of all lovely imports Kiwis want, in absence of sky high borrowing. And those low wages have nothing to do with pathetic level of union power or density in NZ of course.
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