The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions is calling on investors in Supie to do the right thing and pay the company’s workers the money they are owed.
Workers at Supie were reportedly advised yesterday that the company had gone into voluntary administration and they would not be paid for their last two weeks of work or their annual leave.
NZCTU Secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges says investors have a moral obligation to pay workers what they are owed.
“These are low paid workers already dealing with a cost of living crisis who are now being robbed of their final pay and their annual leave. Many of them are now concerned they will not be able to pay their rent.
“This is a clear injustice and the investors have a moral responsibility to put it right. It is the investors who took a risk on Supie in the hope of financial reward, and it is they who should bear that risk, not the workers who have done everything they can to make the business a success.
“We are calling on the investors to stop hiding behind the legal fiction of the company structure and instead get together and pay the workers what they are owed.”
Ansell-Bridges says this issue shows New Zealand needs to strengthen worker protections, not weaken them.
“New Zealand ranks lower than Paraguay when it comes to worker protections in cases of business failure.
“Instead of trying to remove Fair Pay Agreements and restore 90 day trials, the incoming government should be looking to improve worker protections to avoid injustices like we are seeing right now at Supie.”