Leaked paper shows disregard for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Kiwi workers

A cabinet consultation paper provided to the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions by Newshub today, shows the incoming Government is disregarding the negative impact of repealing Fair Pay Agreements, and the advice of their own officials.    

NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff said the paper shows the Government ignoring the impact on workers in a cost-of-living crisis and reflected poorly on Christopher Luxon’s management of the policy.

“This demonstrates the profoundly out of touch priorities Christopher Luxon has for New Zealand. Alnd already, it seems like he’s lost control of his cabinet.

“This Government has made a choice to prioritise cutting pay and conditions for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Kiwi workers, by repealing the FPA Act.”

The paper outlines the process by which Fair Pay Agreements would be repealed. In one section, it outlined who would benefit from improvements to working conditions.

“Given [women, Māori, Pacific people, and young people] are disproportionately represented in workforces where there are lower employment terms, they could have disproportionately benefited from any improved terms obtained by an FPA.”

Wagstaff said Luxon was ignoring the evidence provided by officials about how damaging this move will be.

“By pushing forward with this, Luxon is taking money directly from the pockets of hundreds of thousands of hardworking Kiwis. This comes after last week, where the NZCTU discovered that the Government was prioritising paying out $3 billion for landlords.”

The paper also states that the NZCTU has been consulted on this process. Wagstaff said no proper consultation had taken place with the NZCTU.

“After campaigning to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, one of the first actions of this Government is to make it harder for many workers to get ahead, and to get the protections they deserve. It just proves what we said all along during the campaign that Christopher Luxon is out of touch.”