The nine day fortnight is effectively a ten percent wage cut.
Although the government has made great play of workers receiving 'training' or 'education' on the tenth day, its now clear that workers won't be compensated for the loss of wages.
This is just unacceptable and I don't think the government has any real intention to provide 'education'. This is just a smokescreen to conceal what amounts to another assault on ordinary people.
The trade union movement shouldn't even be considering this proposal and the fact that it is provides more evidence that we are saddled with a corrupt trade union bureaucracy that is all too willing to sellout the people it is supposed to defend.
Will workers at The Warehouse be having their already low wages slashed? How is this justified when we know that The Warehouse has made plans to sack one thousand of its workers?
While companies like The Warehouse might be seeing reduced profit margins, money is still flowing out to shareholders in the form of dividends. Why should workers, already trying to cope with sharply rising prices, effectively subsidise such dividends through having their wages cut?
The call must go up again - 'We won't pay for your crisis!'
NINE DAY FORTNIGHT EQUALS TEN PERCENT WAGE CUT.
CTU President Helen Kelly's response to this was typically meek and pathetic.
ReplyDeleteWhat we are seeing is employers and government using this recession (that they created) to erode workers rights and all the Union is prepared to do is engage in a war of words that results in no action.
The government has been given this power because the likes of Helen Kelly and Andrew Little in the Union bureaucracy rolled over and let them take it. No 'name and shame' garbage is going to change anything. Workers rights have to be fought for with strong industrial action, not meaningless word campaigns.
From Radio NZ this afternoon:
ReplyDelete'Finance Minister Bill English wants clarification on a proposal for a nine-day working fortnight put forward at last Friday's job summit. Mr English says there are conflicting expections about the proposal and he'd like to get to the bottom of what was meant.
Here's the clincher:
'Mr English says the Government has no intention of subsidising the 10th day of everyone's fortnight, but says there may be some opportunities for training.'
There you go - its nothing more than a huge wage cut to benefit the business sector who are already laying off staff.
The other concern I have with this is what becomes of the workers who opt to work a full fortnight? Are they expected to pick up the workload of those who are in training? Employers are notorious for reducing employee numbers and expecting whoever's left over to pick up the slack, often resulting in even longer work hours and without a related increase in wages.
ReplyDelete