Wage Increases Poor Without Union Advocacy

Wage Increases Poor Without Union Advocacy
 
Without union advocacy employers will usually pay the smallest pay rises they can, FIRST Union said today.
 
Statistics NZ figures out today showed wages increased 2% on average in the past year.
 
Union members typically received wage increases well above average increases across the workforce, Robert Reid, FIRST Union General Secretary said.
 
“Over the last year, a quarter of the members of our union received wage increases of 4.5% or greater with some workers in newly unionised sites receiving increases of up to 18% to bring them from minimum wage to the union’s industry standard levels,” he said.
 
“Very few of the wage increases negotiated by our union have been lower than 2.75%.”
 
FIRST Union has found that without union advocacy, most employers seek to pay as little as possible, Robert Reid said.
 
“It is not uncommon for us to be concluding agreements around 3% where the employer’s first offers, and what would have been paid on a non-union site, were well below 2%.”
 
“It is vitally important that wage rises for low paid and other workers increase during this economic period.”
 
“An increase in wages and spending power of workers is needed to combat the austerity policies of the Government which, if successful could see New Zealand head down the path of recession again.”
 
Robert Reid said that low wages were a structural, but avoidable, problem in the New Zealand economy, and it needed a structural solution.
 
ENDS

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