Health budget funding needs $691 million to maintain services
The Government’s health budget will need to increase by $691 million just to maintain current levels of service.
Media Releases
Mansions & garden sheds
The New Zealand Herald has released data today showing that our highest paid executives had a pay rise of 12% in 2015. In contrast most working Kiwis had a pay rise of 2.2% over the same period.
Government’s job creation strategies need a major boost
Working people are calling on the Government to significantly up their game in job creation, following a big rise in people looking for work.
CTU Secretary Sam Huggard says working people need to see a better plan from government to create jobs.
99 Kiwis killed at work
This Workers Memorial Day, April 28th, we remember the 99* New Zealanders who went to work and never came home, the 99 New Zealanders who were killed at work.
“Workers Memorial Day is a sombre day. We remember those whose lives would have been saved if their workplaces had been safer. All of these deaths could have been prevented,” CTU President Richard Wagstaff said.
Working people deserve an apology from Bill English
The Council of Trade Unions says that Deputy Leader of the National Party, Bill English needs to apologise to working people after his reprehensible comments made about working people being useless.
Government jobs strategy needed
Following on from two large-scale redundancies announced in the past two weeks, new analysis out today from the Reserve Bank shows increased migration is contributing to the reason so many people are out of work.
Training for workplace health and safety representatives
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions knows that high quality, worker-centric health and safety representative training programmes are a key to safer work under the new Health and Safety at Work Act. The new Act comes into force today and heralds some significant improvements in the health and safety space – including new powers for Health and Safety Reps (HSRs).
Holiday pay roll mistakes can be fixed
The Council of Trade Unions is calling on the Government to work with business and unions to resolve the miscalculation, by some employers, of holiday pay entitlements.
New health and safety law from Monday
The Health and Safety at Work Act comes into force on Monday 4 April. The new law will mean that more Kiwis will come home safely from work.
Another forestry worker killed at work
Another forestry worker has been killed at work today. The Council of Trade Unions sends our deepest sympathies to the whanau and colleagues of the man who was working on a Pan Pac forestry block inland from Tutira, north of Napier.
CTU welcomes Labour Party leadership on the future of work
The CTU congratulates the Labour Party for their foresight and focused attention in examining the Future of Work.
Longer wait and higher prices likely for some life-saving medicines under the TPPA
New Zealand is likely to come under pressure to extend the monopoly times for a new group of potentially life-saving specialty medicines under the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), say the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) and the Council of Trade Unions (CTU).