Rest home so short staffed brought in unvaccinated workers but won’t back down on proposed cuts to pay and hours
There’s no holiday from proposed cuts to union members’ weekend rates or proposals to change and reduce hours for some E tū members at Kaitaia’s only rest home, run by Claud Switzer Memorial Trust.
Members have been striking since October and are now on their sixth morning strike to protest the trust’s refusal to back down on problematic clawbacks in their new collective agreement, including reduced weekend rates.
They are also protesting proposed changes to the staffing roster that will lead to reductions in weekly hours for several members, amid a worrying staffing shortage.
The workers in question have been told that if they do not agree to the new roster and hours, their positions will be disestablished.
In the past few weeks, the home was so short staffed, it obtained exemptions from the Ministry of Health to temporarily bring back unvaccinated workers to fill gaps.
Members want to see the trust’s board come to a fair agreement on their collective and to retain valuable, experienced staff at their current hours.
The Claud Switzer has been going for yonks. Perhaps it is still influenced by members on its committee from its older days of last century, with a bit of classism and racism thrown in. The staff should be reasonable and accept ‘our’ arrangements, costs should be kept down.
I’ve commented on the old now being ‘farmed’ by business. Bah!
So they are bringing in “scabs” to do the work instead… And why are we acting surprised? This method is so old its white whiskers have fallen out… While the labour laws are still slanted towards supporting the management in any given situation, there is no need to try to think up new ways of stymying a rational system for the sake of maximising profits… That’s actually quite lucky, as the management class have very little, or no imagination past brutality, intimidation, and at the last, just refusing to be sensible as their weapons of choice for centuries now… Again, why are we even slightly shocked that they would do the same old same old yet again? I will make a prediction… Until NZ gets back to a rational and humane approach to industrial relations, we will need to get used to this happening in every industry nationwide for the foreseeable future…