By Mike Treen, Unite Union National Director

(Reprinted from The Daily Blog)

The government has decided to increase the building of state housing from their extremely modest target of 1000 a year to the still very modest target of 1600 a year over the next four years.

Housing NZ is not being given any extra money to do this.

They will have to borrow on private financial markets at higher rates than the government can borrow money for.

The cost to the government will be more as a result.

This absurd result is the product of what they call “fiscal restraint”.

Here is how it works.

Unite Union has authorised a window of industrial action across Event cinemas up and down New Zealand again today, following on from the success of Wednesday nights' strike on the midnight screening of Star Wars movie Han Solo.

Unite Union is calling on all supporters of human rights to join the rally
at 2pm this Saturday in Auckland's Aotea Square to protest Israel's crime
against the Palestinian people.

It is time for New Zealand to expel the Israeli ambassador and boycott the
Israeli regime until the full rights of the Palestinian people is guaranteed.

The New Zealand Labour Letter is published as a service to Labour by AIL of New Zealand Ltd.

New Zealand Labour News

Public Service Association called on Labour Government to “deliver on its promises” of a Living Wage for all public service workers. The union cited new data which revealed “how many workers aren’t paid enough to live decently.” Nearly 1 in 10 staff at the Ministry of Justice are paid below the Living Wage, which PSA National Secretary Glenn Barclay said, “is very disappointing.” According to PSA, 329 Justice staff are paid below $20.55 an hour, most of them administrative staff supporting Court Registry workers. "Without admin staff, the court system would grind to a halt," Barclay said in a statement. "It’s imperative these workers are paid enough to feed and clothe their families, pay their bills and save for their retirement. We expect the Ministry to urgently address this in bargaining, which will begin shortly." He said PSA research has identified more than 1000 public service employees who are paid below the Living Wage.

By Mike Treen, Unite National Director

(Reprinted from The Daily Blog)

I am getting a bit annoyed with McDonald's.

Unite Union believes they have been cheating staff of their alternative holiday entitlements for working on a public holiday. But it has been an uphill battle to get them to accept that fact.

At the end of last year, the Employment Relations Authority ruled on a case brought by the Labour Inspector against Wendy's following a complaint from a Unite member in Christchurch.  In essence, the authority said that so long as a worker had worked a majority of the same day over at least a three-month period then they were entitled to an alternative holiday or lieu day. Working a majority of days over three months made it an “otherwise working day” for them and therefore met the legal test in the Holidays Act. If you had been employed less than three months then a simple majority of weeks worked would make you eligible and a shorter period on a new shift pattern could also create eligibility.

After 1st April the maximum Unite Union fee will increase from $6 a week to $6.25 a week. This is a scheduled adjustment we make every two years to allow for inflation and to maintain low fees for those earning less.

Because nearly all of our members have incomes which can vary from week to week, Unite has a percentage based fee system where most pay 1.1% of their weekly earnings in union fees. This means someone earning $400 will pay $4.40 a week, $300 would be $3.30 a week and so on.

Unite Union wants answers from the government as to why hundreds of thousands of workers are still waiting to have the annual leave stolen from them in the past restored.

It is three years since Unite first wrote to major employers in the fast food industry telling them that they were miscalculating annual leave for their staff.

It is two years since MBIE, the government agency responsible, admitted being in error in the payment of their own staff.

Last week we discovered that the firm Xero, who provide accounting software for a third of all New Zealand small businesses as well as online payroll services, have sent us and other employers their method for calculating annual leave and it means employers will get many workers annual leave just plain wrong. This firm may be de facto the largest payroll provider in the country with hundreds of thousands of clients.

By John Crocker, Unite Union Industrial Officer

SkyCity has been ordered by the Employment Court to reinstate a Table Games manager who was fired over a mix up with betting limits for one of its high rollers.

In the early hours of 17 February 2016 a confusing briefing was given to the morning shift at the Auckland casino. Hours later it was believed that a high roller may have been playing bets over the maximum and was due a refund, which was communicated to her. In trying to sort out the amount, it was discovered no error had been made, but the petulant player was insistent and the casino feared losing her as a player. Later a goodwill payment of over $300k was made to the player (who had threated not to pay the casino $3M she owed).

Major structural changes to the economy have left workers out of pocket and changes are needed to address the imbalance, the Council of Trade Union (CTU) says following the release of a new Productivity Commission report.

"Labour share of income - the proportion of the total income of a country that goes to working people as distinct from the owners of capital - has been dropping for decades as a direct result of government decisions," CTU Economist Bill Rosenberg says.