1 December 2010

MAF and ADECCO deliver bleak Xmas for long-serving airport workers

The evils of contracting government services have been exposed at Auckland Airport where staff who have performed duties for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for many years have been thrown out of their jobs.

14 long serving staff have been thrown on the scrapheap just three weeks before Xmas because MAF has engaged a new contractor, foreign multinational company ADECCO, which is refusing to take on these long serving staff.

Two of the 14 have worked in the role for over 10 years with others having between two and five years service. The longest-serving staff were originally employed by MAF but their work has since been contracted out to labour hire companies, the latest of which is ADECCO. "These employees have shown day by day, year by year that they can do the job to a high standard" says Unite National Director Mike Treen. "We are disgusted that the new contractor has shafted the workers and that MAF are washing their hands of responsibility."

"The jobs continue but good reliable workers are being evicted from them just a couple of weeks before Xmas."

All appeals to MAF and ADECCO on behalf of the workers have been tossed aside.

"Contracting core government services unleashes the worst aspects of profit-driven employment," says Mike Treen. "These workers have been put at the mercy of a wealthy foreign multinational which aims to keep wages low and simply clip the ticket on MAF contract work."

"It seems clear to us ADECCO wants to get rid of longer-serving staff to remove institutional memory and casualise these full-time jobs."

It's a two-fingered salute from MAF and ADECCO to these most loyal of workers who along with their families face a bleak Xmas.

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