But she said the same could not be said of Bunning s competitors, including some Auckland Mitre 10 stores, and other parts of the retail industry. “It’s time retail employers who are not paying a living wage took a moment to reflect on the huge profits made in the sector despite the pandemic, and truly consider the people on the shop floor who make that windfall every year for the company.”
Chris McKeen/Stuff
Hundred of retails workers protest in favour of living wage, picketing outside St Lukes Countdown, in 2019. Only about a fifth of Bunnings’ staff are unionised, and New Zealand general manager Ben Camire said most permanent staff were on pay bands above the current living wage. Other staff benefits included share options and bonuses.
STUFF
The Labour government is looking to help employees like cleaners and support workers negotiate better pay with their employers.
The Government has announced a radical overhaul of New Zealand’s labour laws, with a policy package that will supercharge the institutional power of unions and place centralised wage bargaining back at the heart of industrial relations law. The new Fair Pay Agreement system, announced in Auckland today, is explicitly designed to put a floor under wages by allowing unions to negotiate on an industry-wide basis. If 10 per cent of a workforce, or 1000 workers agree, a new Fair Pay Agreement can be enacted.
STUFF
The Labour government is looking to help employees like cleaners and support workers negotiate better pay with their employers.
OPINION: In the same week that the Government announced a freeze on pay for large numbers of public sector workers, it also announced the biggest change to industrial relations law in three decades. What the Government giveth, the Government taketh away. The politics – and it does appear to be all politics – of the pay freeze have backfired on Labour. That’s because it is very difficult to go around thanking all the government workers who helped keep the joint going during Covid-19 then turn around and give many of them a pay freeze.