The new anti-union laws start today.
They allow bosses to screw with workers tea breaks, redefine ‘good faith’ to limit workers knowledge of restructures and of course the new ability for employers to simply walk away from the negotiating table altogether.
These are brazen attacks on the Unions and do nothing to strengthen worker rights in any way.
This legislation needs to be dumped the moment a new Government wins.
I work in a company that quite regularly welches on its workers to do 16 hour working days (yes ! 16 hours straight !! ) , frequently will send someone round at two or three in the morning ( 02:00 / 03:00 ) .
to bang on their door to wake them on their day off to come into work,….
Will sack anyone who joins a union , has told an employee he has to pay back in deductions from his pay something that the company should have Public Liability Insurance for ( easy to see that they do this so they don’t have to pay higher premiums as being the motive )…
Pay 25 cents above the minimum hourly rate ,…
In fact…it was around 9 months before I had my first weekend off just recently. Six , seven and eight days straight was the norm for ages.
We have had public holidays where we work and if we do night shift ….somehow the fact that you’ve worked through the night doesn’t count – and knowing full well you have to sleep through that Public holiday they still give no compensation…..
You see…I work in the security industry….guarding the rich mans pockets…..
A security company…that frequently breaks the labour laws of this country with impunity.
I tell you this , rich man….there will come a day when you will woefully regret your greed and avarice.
Truly you will. I assure you that.
how do you justify working for a company like that?
New Zealanders need to stop being their own worst enemy – full stop!
Indeed….their time is coming….do you not realize collating material is best done from within?
These and other company’s are subsidized and helped greatly by the immigrants that come to this country who :
A) Do not understand or are familiar with New Zealands labour laws , and , –
B) Generally are too afraid to speak up through either language barriers or simply because in doing so it may jeopardize their citizenship…
And not only immigrants…the tendency is to moan about it but then do nothing about it. Many simply opt to leave.
And then there are those who have to stick it out for various reasons….There are the ones coming up for retirement who just want to hang on , those that are not qualified and are fearful of not gaining employment elsewhere…., those who have families to support , rent , even mortgages….
There are many …I read 300,000 who are currently drawing the minimum wage in this country…and many more who barely are above that.
That’s a lot of people who would vote for the party that grew some balls and realized just what a huge potential there is for that sector..
And thats not counting people like me who can only get temporary work contracts that last a week or only a few daysa then we get ditched and may have to wait days or weeks before we get another few days or weeks work. Things are so bad down here in the construction rebuild i have not done a days work in christchurch since the 2nd of february. Not only that i am signed up with 18 agencies in christchurch and not one of them was talking positive about the rebuild. Other than roading work that is/.
Easy to say but if you need a job, you will take what you can. Its that simple. Once upon a time in this country we had things called factories. They were great. They would employ lots of people, many of whom would otherwise struggle to find work due to having no formal qualifications, even if they are hard working, productive and loyal employees. Not everybody can own the business or be a professional. Now, we have a disempowered workforce, zero hour contracts, significant unemployment (and truly frightening youth unemployment) plus much more UNDER-employment, due to the increase in part time and casual work. We have been well and truly screwed over by successive governments, and this government in particular. So hundreds apply for a shitty, underpaid job, because at least its better than being on the dole. But not a whole lot better.
Just like we have followed UK with zero hour contracts, next trick is to stop Union subs from being taken out at source, meaning workers have find more time to set up direct debits…….making it more complicated, and therefore less likely.
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