Service and Food Workers union support call to abandon cuts to KiwiSaver

The Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota, which represents over 22,000 union members supports the call by Council of Trade Unions President Helen Kelly for the National Party to abandon their KiwiSaver cuts.

"Many of our members are on low incomes, and these cuts to KiwiSaver will really hit them where it hurts most - in their hard earned retirement." said John Ryall, National Secretary of the SFWU.

"Our members work long hours on low pay, and KiwiSaver gives them something to look forward to when they finally manage to retire from work. Many of them will have their money locked in to KiwiSaver for another 20 or 30 years, and they tell us they are very unhappy about National's proposed changes."

"At the moment employer contributions are totally covered by tax credits which means the contributions are easier to fund. If those tax cuts are reduced as National are proposing then inevitably employers may start looking to fund their share of the contributions from wages."

Although National's proposal reduces the employee contribution to 2% from 4% it also caps the employer contribution at 2% as well. This means by 2011 instead of being able to save a minimum of 4+4%, employees can only save a minimum of 2+2%.

ENDS

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