The Council of Trade Unions is welcoming growing awareness in the business sector that lifting incomes is a priority, with today’s announcement that Westpac will be an accredited Living Wage employer.
“It’s good to see that at least some parts of the business sector are recognising that low wages are a problem. Employers have the power to improve wages. Paying a Living Wage alongside other important initiatives like Fair Pay Agreements, equal pay and ensuring that working Kiwis have healthy and safe workplaces, are all elements of what will make work future proofed in New Zealand,” said CTU Secretary, Sam Huggard.
The move follows yesterday’s release of proposals to establish Fair Pay Agreements to lift pay across industries by the committee’s chair Sir Jim Bolger.
“Simon Power, another former senior National Party figure, has today also called on other employers to lift wages. We hope that fair minded businesses, and indeed the National Party, will move beyond their unfathomable opposition to working as a country on a plan to lift wages, rather than just leaving it to chance, which has clearly not worked.”
“The number of employers who are enthusiastically engaging in the living wage movement is increasing, a sign that real momentum is building, change is happening. Our congratulations to Westpac, to the bank workers’ union FIRST Union and to the Living Wage movement,” Huggard said.