NZCTU presents Briefing for the Incoming Government

The New Zealand Coun­cil of Trade Unions has today pro­vid­ed its brief­ing for the incom­ing gov­ern­ment.

NZCTU Pres­i­dent Richard Wagstaff said since 2017, the coun­try has made sig­nif­i­cant progress on a range of eco­nom­ic and social issues.  

“Under the last Gov­ern­ment, many mea­sures improved. Child pover­ty has fall­en. Unem­ploy­ment reached record lows. The min­i­mum wage increased by 44 per­cent. Ben­e­fits were increased and linked to wages rather than infla­tion. Paid parental leave was extend­ed to 26 weeks, and sick leave was dou­bled. All of these changes helped to deliv­er a more equi­table Aotearoa and helped to ensure that some of the poor­est New Zealan­ders had a real boost in their qual­i­ty of life. We hope that the progress made to date con­tin­ues under this new gov­ern­ment. 

“New Zealand needs to become the best coun­try in the world to be a work­er, by cre­at­ing good work, and build­ing a more pro­duc­tive, sus­tain­able, and inclu­sive econ­o­my.” 

 To con­tin­ue mak­ing progress the incom­ing gov­ern­ment should pri­ori­tise action in areas such as: 

• Work to elim­i­nate the bar­ri­ers that dis­ad­van­tage kaimahi M?ori  
• Increas­ing the min­i­mum wage to the liv­ing wage 
• Con­tin­ue work­ing to improve pay equi­ty 
• Reform the Hol­i­days Act 
• Crim­i­nal­is­ing wage theft 
• Intro­duce cor­po­rate manslaugh­ter leg­is­la­tion 
• Elim­i­nate migrant labour exploita­tion 
• Rat­i­fy all Inter­na­tion­al Labour Orga­ni­za­tion fun­da­men­tal con­ven­tions 
• Increase the capac­i­ty of New Zealand’s labour and health and safe­ty reg­u­la­tors 
• Sup­port voca­tion­al edu­ca­tion and work­force devel­op­ment 
• Con­tin­ue to plan for just tran­si­tions 
• Rebal­anc­ing the tax sys­tem 
• Increase the sup­ply of afford­able hous­ing 
• Estab­lish a Min­istry of Green Works to close our infra­struc­ture gap 
• Improve com­pe­ti­tion in key sec­tors 

“There are also a range of areas where the CTU believes that the incom­ing gov­ern­ments agen­da could do with fresh ideas. Revers­ing progress on hon­our­ing Te Tir­i­ti o Wai­t­an­gi; repeal­ing the Fair Pay Agree­ments Act; rein­stat­ing 90-day tri­als for all busi­ness­es; con­tin­u­ing to mis­clas­si­fy employ­ees as con­trac­tors; stop­ping fur­ther work on social income insur­ance; cut­ting pub­lic sec­tor fund­ing; and repeal­ing the Reserve Bank’s employ­ment man­date are not going to help. 

“If imple­ment­ed, these poli­cies will take New Zealand back­wards. They rep­re­sent out­dat­ed ideas that have been proven not to work.

“This brief­ing is just the start of the work that the incom­ing gov­ern­ment will need to com­plete. There is much to do, and every day that action is delayed in these areas real work­ers and fam­i­lies suf­fer across New Zealand. The NZCTU wants to engage with gov­ern­ment urgent­ly on these issues and more.  

“We pas­sion­ate­ly believe in mak­ing New Zealand the best coun­try in the world to be a work­er through the cre­ation of good work. Regard­less of the dif­fer­ences between the trade union move­ment and the polit­i­cal par­ties that com­prise the new gov­ern­ment, we stand ready to work con­struc­tive­ly with gov­ern­ment, deliv­er­ing pos­i­tive poli­cies that will make this aspi­ra­tion a real­i­ty.”