The IRD management is following a course of action in opposition to current government policy says Unite Union.
Unite represents workers employed by Salmat who is a third party call centre operator currently contracted to provide services to the IRD. This contract was review early this year and Salmat’s services were discontinued to be replaced by temping agency Madison in September.
“The IRD have effectively replaced an experienced, unionised employer who offered fairly secure work with a temping agency,” says Industrial Officer John Crocker.
“Madison, in turn, is offering the workers casual, temping positions with no guarantee of the same wage, destroying their job security. This also affects the public who will receive an inferior service.
“This seems to fly in the face of explicit Labour Government policy, namely ‘Labour is committed to being a good employer in government. All core public sector employees will be paid at least the Living Wage, at a cost of $15m, and this will be extended to contractors over time.’ .
“Further the government has the Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Act before parliament so any proposed cost savings will be wiped out when all sub-contractors have to treat their workers as fairly as the primary employer”
“The government needs to ensure that it’s departments are not acting in a way that undermines the good work it is trying to do. The IRD management needs to be pulled into line on this, and a number of other issues raised by the Public Service Association”, said Mr Crocker.
Unite has contacted IRD who refused to meet to discuss these issues.
Unite has contacted Minister Stuart Nash who has not responded.
IRD are a ..holes and they have always been but unfortunately they have got worse in the last 9 years under the guise of better and more efficient public services when in fact public services are the worst they have ever been and they cant get any worse surely not. The new government has been left to clean up all this mess and as time goes by they will find more and more mess because the last government have been so devious.
Gob smacked. All customer service work is challenging. Working in an IRD call centre with large numbers of stressed callers particularly so.
It is in the interests of both the IRD and their clients to have good stable experienced staff, and to value those staff and to treat them well. Dumping them wholesale and replacing them with vulnerable temps seems an insane counter-intuitive decision.
As the IRD is a govt dept this could be yet another issue for the State Services Commissioner to explore.
Mjolnir cites the bus drivers and the Wgtn bus drivers are being treated unfairly and inhumanely right now.That’s private enterprise. IRD are tax-payer territory and its management should be answerable to the NZ taxpayer, not just for how it conducts our govt’s business,but for how it treats our people.
They will have some sort of rationale, and if it is reasonable, then why hide it ?
Kia kaha IRD people.
There are many willing slaves out there in the brutal society we have now in Greater Auckland, they will do all to get a job and outbid competitors.
The change of government has not changed the environment much, and if they really wanted change, they should have done more grassroots work and organised workers across sectors and departments, which never happened.
So Labour and NZ First may be kinder in words, they will hardly bring enough change to re establish a society where workers can hope to earn and save enough to ever get their own home and a decent living standard.
Now this government even signed off on letting more immigrants in as construction and seasonal agricultural and horticultural or tourism workers, only continuing, with a few tweaks, with the same agenda that business dictated before, and that was done by National.
I am totally disillusioned with this present government, PM baby or not, while I appreciate the hope a newborn brings, to Jacinda and her partner.
At some stage we were ALL newborns, look what the world and society did to many of us, to never get anywhere near a decent life and existence.
So hope there may be, for others it is endless bitterness and disappointment, we cannot hope to be reborn and have a new chance any time soon, can we, those who are written off.
Ditto Marc – but it’s still early days yet.
With a bit of luck we may reach nirvana and not be reborn, but I’m working jolly hard on my karma just in case.
Don’t let anyone write you off in the meantime, stick to your values and you’re a better man than many.
Vote the Tories back in again ?
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