Nothing highlights the enormous chasm between the CTU and the Government over the proposed Fair Pay Agreement legislation than the comments by CTU President Richard Wagstaff that he’s “disappointed not to see the legislation passed into law before the election”.
Was he not listening to Winston and Jacinda? They very clearly spelt out that the CTU shouldn’t push their luck and if the CTU honestly believed that the Government would risk the little political capital they have to push forward something as large scale as the Fair Pay Agreement legislation without any PR campaign by the CTU to bring the public over BEFORE THE ELECTION, they’re dreamin!
This Government didn’t have a plan to reform the public service so as to make it far more service focused to implement the transportive change Jacinda promised so to expect something this large before the election seems bewilderingly optimistic and slightly detached.
If Richard wants to see this legislation passed, he needs to get the CTU out and actually sell it because Jacinda doesn’t have the luxury of free time to do it for him.
It is not as easy as you think to get rid of the rotten public service workers we have in our mist remember they do have rights
Get rid of the PSA. The shitiest union in the country!
I think you need to do better than this. This policy has been around in the Labour Party since 2014 in Helen Kelly’s day when it was called Industry Standard Agreements. It has been a clear push from Labour Affiliated Unions, (who are all private sector unions) and whose members experience the worst of the excesses of the deregulation of the labour market. This is not about the public sector unions actually, though they support the policy. It’s about getting a better deal for the working class, marginalised, contracted out workers like security guards and cleaners, and retail workers who suffer under a duopoly. Ultimately, it is also about bringing into line the renegades like Talleys who undermine good employment agreements in the Primary Production Area and force unions like the MWU to defend workers in excessive and multiple litigation, such as the Wairoa Locked out workers in AFFCO, who have only just had a settlement – four years later. I am disappointed at the lack of progress on this ; I know it’s not Jacinda, and I know its not most of my former Labour MP colleagues. This will be an election issue next year and we all know what we need to do to make sure that the handbrake on labour aspirations is no longer there.
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