Tuesday October 18, 2011

More workers should have access to industry standards in wages

“More workers should have access to a fair standard of pay across their industry,” FIRST Union General Secretary, Robert Reid said.

Phil Goff announced the Labour Party’s election policy on work and wages at the FIRST Union conference in Hamilton today.

Robert Reid said that low wages were a structural, but avoidable, problem in the New Zealand economy, and it needed a structural solution.

“There are many industries that differ hugely in the wages paid to their workers, for the same work,” he said.

“The food retail industry is a classic example. Retail workers at Countdown, where there are greater numbers of workers bargaining collectively, are paid much more than those at Foodstuffs’ Pak’nSave and New World supermarkets, where more workers are on individual agreements.

“The exceptions are those Pak’nSaves that have had a union collective for 2-3 years. Workers in these supermarkets are paid similar to Countdown at $15.00 per hour or more, whereas non-unionised Pak’nSaves and New Worlds only pay around the minimum wage of $13.00 per hour. ”

“Labour’s policy would allow collectively bargained wage rates to be spread across the whole industry. In the end this will be good for workers and the good employers, as it will not allow bad employers to undercut agreed industry standards.

New Zealand’s wages were comparable to Australia’s until the 1980s, but the wage gap opened up in the 1990s when the labour market was deregulated and wages fell, alongside a drop in firms’ investment in plant and machinery.

"Australia retained wage fixing systems, and these produced better outcomes for workers, where there are clear industry standards on wages and conditions."

“We can certainly whip the Australians when it comes to rugby, but in the pay packets we fall well short.

“It’s high time this country modernised its own industry wage system, and Labour’s approach is heading in the right direction,” Robert Reid said.

ENDS

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