The Labour Party is tentatively backing a policy proposal from the Council of Trade Unions for the establishment of a new Workplace Education Authority. Plans to reform workplace safety rules risk repeating the deadly failures of the Pike River mine disaster, officials are warning. More than a hundred unionised staff at Stuff have gone on strike, saying “journalists have taken hit after hit” of “insulting” pay offers at the media company. The government has introduced new legislation to let the Chief of Defence Force sign off on having uniformed staff fill in for striking civilians.
Union coverage
- CTU: Labour, Port of Auckland back plan for a new taxpayer-funded agency to provide delegate training
- CTU: Workplace safety reforms risk another Pike River, officials warned
- E tū: Stuff’s union staff on strike over ‘disgraceful’ pay, conditions
- E tū: Striking Stuff staff say latest pay rise offer is ‘insulting’
- PSA: New bill allows Defence Force staff to fill in for people on strike
- PSA: One of the largest proposed public service cuts heads to Court of Appeal (paywall)
Employment
- Demand for seasonal workers slowing down
- Department of Internal Affairs cuts 126 jobs
- Commissioner won’t rule out absorbing Ministries for Women, Pacific Peoples into larger organisations
Politics
- Former National figures appointed Crown negotiators for regional deals (paywall)
- Opposition parties say government’s supermarket competition plan doesn’t go far enough
- Govt spends $10m to fix national war memorial bells, fires only person who can play
- New Zealand joins international partners in countering China-linked cyber attacks
- $118 extra to drive a RAV4: Will RUC changes help or hurt the climate?
- Political poll offers Government no reprieve (paywall)
- Nearly 90 principals plead for Govt to stop ‘politically driven’ NCEA replacement
- Public spending on psychiatric reports doubles in lieu of cultural reports
Te Ao Māori
- Human rights law blocking Māori authority, researcher Andrew Erueti says
- Researchers target rising HIV diagnoses among Māori
- Tāmaki Makaurau by-election: ‘Rangatahi vote key to winning seat’
Economics
- Exporters need ‘certainty’, not ‘see-sawing’ tariff rate, McClay tells US
- Business confidence on the rise for third consecutive month
- Almost 20 percent increase in hospitality businesses closing with 2500 gone
- Small businesses not seeing OCR flow-on effects as pessimism grows – survey
- Commerce Commission to take action against real estate price-fixing