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.”