Laila Harre

Union Relevance in Aotearoa in the 21st Century

Laila Harré
National Secretary
National Distribution Union

Leila Harre's piece in defence of shop workers seemed to overlook a couple of critical factors.

Unfortunately, some occupations are going to be closer to the minimum wage than others, and without some form of job evaluation and ranking, this argument is always going to surface. Some unionists shout louder and have a greater ability to inconvenience the general public than others.

Pay rates ideally should be within a range dictated by many factors, including the amount of time spent getting qualified (and competent), the inherent danger of the job, antisocial hours, responsibility for the safety of others, the ability to generate extra income by bonuses or extra hours, supply and demand, integrity and the handling of cash. Or the physical demands of strength and agility, and the number of hours required per week. The list goes on.

Mostly, brain surgeons, police, prison staff, dentists, and so on are going to outrank shop assistants, road sweepers and office cleaners. That does not in any way decry the necessity or value of these jobs, but there is a hierarchy, whether we like it or not.

Opening hours should ideally be dictated by the business owner. But in shopping malls, the demands are set by the mall owners, not the shop or business owners, and this is an area that so far has escaped unscathed. It may well be one of the root causes for the loss of jobs in the clothing and footwear industries, for example.

Let's be realistic. Long working hours in New Zealand and productivity are not related. Long working hours are demanded by the shopping malls, and if a business is required to be open from 9am to midnight, then it has to pay wages for all staff for this time, regardless of the takings.

Any analysis of daily shop turnover over a year, particularly in the clothing or footwear industries, will show that on some days, it wasn't worth opening at all, and therefore the business would have made a substantial loss. Those losses can only be made up by some good trading days.

Using that analysis, shop owners could make the decision to close on Mondays for example, like many restaurants, except on the approach to Christmas or holiday times.

But can they close? The malls say "no". Can they close at 6pm if their figures show that opening until midnight is a waste of money? The malls say "no".

The malls also often have ratchet rent clauses linked to turnover (not profit), and having ratcheted them up, the mall owners then develop a mall further up the road and take much of the trade with them. Add to that compulsory six-figure refits after six years, and the shop owner is on a hiding to nothing, having to bank perhaps $300 a week just to pay for a refit that they probably don't want anyway.

What can the shopkeeper do? Probably dump all New Zealand-made goods - where manufacturers are also forced to pay for ACC levies, maternity leave, sick pay, over the top Occupational Safety and Health requirements and for an extra week's holiday. Not to mention a culture that virtually denies the employer the right to dismiss useless, unreliable staff.

So, the shopkeeper imports from low-cost countries and in many cases, the goods for sale to the consumer are no cheaper and no better than the New Zealand-made goods were. The difference is that the shopkeeper has a margin to pay the costs of running the business.

The cutters, pattern makers, sewing machinists and other technical staff leave the clothing trade for good. Many no doubt end up on some form of benefit.

When it comes to productivity, particularly in manufacturing, the majority of local businesses are totally untrained in the techniques of real productivity improvement. Accountants and advisers abound, but few really understand true product costing and production planning. And virtually none understand labour and management cost control, material utilisation and performance training - probably because tertiary institutes no longer offer adequate training in these areas.

They prefer to specialise in the popular bums-on-seats courses, catering for the dreams of wannabe designers instead of offering the technical and managerial skills required to survive in business.

Opening at Easter is not a major problem. Let the shop owners decide when to open and then maybe they will have extra money to pay their staff. But if people can't get all their shopping done between 9am and 7pm, then there is something wrong somewhere, and everyone deserves at least one day off a week. Even the owner of a small business.

* Ray Green is a former head of management services at Bendon and operations manager for Specialty Brands (Rodd & Gunn/Logan). He is also a qualified productivity specialist for the sewn products trades - with 30 years experience, including several years tutoring AIT/AUT fashion technology courses.

Wellington (dpa) - Filipino labour unionist Dennis Maga is conducting a speaking tour of New Zealand to condemn political repression and killings in his homeland a week before President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo arrives for an official visit, a union leader said Monday.

Maga is speaking particularly about killings during last week's Filipino elections, said Laila Harre, secretary of New Zealand's National Distribution Union.

Arroyo plans to attend the Asia-Pacific Regional Interfaith Dialogue May 29-31 at Waitangi. It aims to strengthen regional security, promote peace and tolerance between different religions, and build networks between religious communities in South-East Asia and the South Pacific.

Harre said the Philippines National Police description of last week's polls as "relatively peaceful" was an outrage.

She called the Philippines the "Colombia of the South Pacific" where hundreds of government-sanctioned killings have been ignored and said Iraq was the only country more dangerous for journalists.

"Four poll watchers were killed last week, bringing the total number of killings during this election to 126," she said. "A left-wing political party leader was also abducted, another attempted abduction failed and another poll observer also went missing just in the last week."

Harre said Maga was president of the "Free Ka Bel" movement to free Ka Bel Beltran, an ailing 74-year-old congressman and chairman of a large trade union federation, whose detention for 16 months in a hospital had been labelled unlawful by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Maga charged that Ka Bel was just one of many victims of increased political repression in the Philippines under Arroyo's administration.

"Besides intimidating political opponents, 858 extrajudicial killings have been documented since her rise to power," he said. "Over 130 of the deaths are from just one party representing the urban poor.

Most of the victims of the political killings have been leftist, political, human-rights and labour activists. Activists have accused the military of being behind most of the attacks, and several foreign fact-finding missions, including one conducted by a UN human-rights investigator, have concluded that the armed forces could indeed be blamed for most of the killings and about 180 forced disappearances.

Amid mounting international pressure to resolve the political attacks, the Philippine government has called on various foreign governments and organizations, such as the European Union and the United Nations, to help it investigate the killings.

"We are very concerned that your prime minister is hosting the president when our elections are being slammed by our media, independent watchdogs and international observers as rife with fraud, intimidation, killing and coercion of voters," Maga said.

He called it a "tragic irony" that the Philippines was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday.

There are concerns the savings incentives in the 2007 Budget could provoke industrial strife.

The revised KiwiSaver scheme includes compulsory employer contributions, as well as tax credits for both workers and companies.

The Minister of Finance says employers could offset the cost of their contributions against wage or salary demands by their staff.

But Business New Zealand says it won't be possible for employers to negotiate on that when their participation is being made mandatory.

Chief executive Phil O'Reilly says wage demands are likely to be made in addition to KiwiSaver contributions - saddling employers with big costs.

The National Distribution Union say it is unlikely to accept Kiwisaver contributions in lieu of pay rises because its members earn too little as it is. National secretary Laila Harre says the scheme is not workable.

The Council of Trade Unions, support the plan.
Net cost small - Cullen

Finance Minister, Michael Cullen says the net cost of the revamped Kiwisaver scheme to employers is small.

Dr Cullen told Morning Report the total wage and salary bill will be 1% higher over the four years over which the 4% contribution will be phased in.

He says tradeoff with wage bargaining is a matter for negotiation, but he expects it will be taken into account.

But the National Party leader, John Key, says nothing has changed for people who can't afford to save, because they will opt out of the scheme.

Further details of the Budget are available in our Budget 2007 feature.

Budget Sparks Concerns About Industrial Relations
6:37 am, 18 May 2007
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Business New Zealand is concerned the savings incentives offered in yesterday's Budget could provoke industrial strife.

The revised Kiwisaver scheme includes compulsory employer contributions, as well as tax credits for both workers and companies.

The Minister of Finance, Dr Michael Cullen, says employers could offset the cost of their contributions against wage or salary demands by their staff.

But Business New Zealand says it will not be possible for employers to negotiate on that when their participation is being made mandatory.

Chief executive, Phil O'Reilly, says wage demands are likely to be made in addition to Kiwisaver contributions, saddling employers with big costs.

National Distribution Union say it is unlikely to accept Kiwisaver contributions in lieu of pay rises because its members earn too little as it is. National secretary, Laila Harre, says the scheme is not workable.

The Council of Trade Unions supports the plan.

Economists say the budget's focus on boosting savings will help the Reserve Bank's fight against inflation in the medium term.

The Finance Minister, Michael Cullen, exceeded his own budget spending limit yesterday by $600 million.

But he does not believe it will cause the Reserve Bank any concerns as the overall surplus is bigger than expected as well.

He says the boost to KiwiSaver is also likely to help ease inflation pressures in the medium to long term.

Economists say increasing savings will help to reduce consumer spending and take money out of the economy unlike tax cuts

But some say the Reserve Bank is not likely to reap the benefits of more savings for five years.

The National Party says the Budget will leave workers feeling short-changed.

Changes to the KiwiSaver scheme include compulsory employer contributions and tax breaks of up to 20-dollars a week to off-set the cost to business.

Employees who sign up to the scheme will get the same amount in tax credits.

But National's leader, John Key, says workers in KiwiSaver will have to give up any wage increases for four years while employer contributions to the scheme progressively rise.

The Green Party has accused the government of failing to address its “green” goals in the Budget.

Green Party co-leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons, says more money could have been put into investing in cleaner technology and sustainable infrastructure such as public transport and coastal shipping.

She says there was no commitment to put real money behind attaining carbon neutrality and sustainability, despite the $1.7 billion surplus.

The New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters, says the reworked KiwiSaver scheme is the bright light in the budget.

Mr Peters says while they are long overdue, the changes to the KiwiSaver scheme are a giant leap forward.

He says KiwiSaver will change the psyche of people as they will have a stake in the economy, like they have never had before.

The United Future leader, Peter Dunne, says the enhanced KiwiSaver scheme is forward-looking, and will reward those who make a long-term commitment to their future.

Mr Dunne, who is the Minister of Revenue, says the budget will encourage a savings culture, as well as promote business investment.

While not ruling out cross party talks on the economy, the Government has made it clear they are extremely unlikely.

On Thursday another rise in the Official Cash Rate and local whiteware company Fisher & Paykel announcing it would relocate 350 manufacturing jobs to Thailand sparked heated debate and Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard said he was open to talks.

Fisher and Paykel blamed the move on New Zealand's difficult manufacturing environment, which was not being helped by high interest rates and the boost they were giving the already soaring dollar.

Prime Minister Helen Clark was lukewarm on the idea and today Finance Minister Michael Cullen said National was showing extreme hypocrisy after previous talks turned sour.

The Government last year discussed the idea of a fixed-rate mortgage levy with National, only to then be publicly slammed by the party's deputy leader and finance spokesman Bill English.

That "was not an edifying experience", Miss Clark told the Sunday Star-Times.

On Radio New Zealand this morning Mr English said urgent action was needed to help exporters.

Dr Cullen said any discussions would have to real buy-in from parties.

"It's extraordinary hypocrisy from Mr English because we did have talks privately before Christmas ... (then in the media) Mr English basically rejected any of the ideas which were under discussion," he told Radio New Zealand.

"If there are to be any kinds of discussions they've got to be on the basis that we are not ruling lots of things out at the start."

He said if there were talks they would need to be "open and honest" and involve more than National and Labour.

There was no easy answer.

"How do you reduce demand on the economy as quickly as possible while doing minimal damage to investments and the exporting sector in particular? There are no answers which are going to be pain free and I think anybody who wants to have any kind of discussions anywhere has got to be quite honest and frank about it."

However, National believed it had some of the answers. Mr English said changes to the tax rate, red tape, infrastructure costs, and labour law would make a difference.

"These are a well known list of things that exporters have been looking for."

Mr Key accepted the United States and Japanese economies were affecting New Zealand but there were things that the Government could have done.

"They've had nine years under conditions that economically gave them the financial ability but also quite low inflation environment to go out and fix some of the supply side issues."

Mr Key said foreign capital was being drawn to New Zealand by high interest rates.

"How do you drive an economy that can have non-inflationary growth and the answer is you have to take the bottlenecks out of what's causing inflation."

He said the loss of workers to Australia and a bloated public service getting high wage increases were examples of things Labour could have addressed.

"The Government has been in an unbelievable sweet spot to do something about this and I think it's sat while Rome's burnt."

The Government has said it was developing incentives for exporters, which would be included in its expected billion dollar budget business tax-cut package.

Mr Key said the only reason the Government was looking at the cut was because of United Future leader, also Revenue Minister, Peter Dunne.

Mr Dunne told Radio New Zealand that Fisher & Paykel should have waited for the cuts before making its decision.

Miss Clark told Breakfast on TV One she believed National was politicking.

"I haven't ruled out such talks but I don't hold out much hope for them either. My experience is that oppositions normally oppose."

She believed the Government's approach had been to get New Zealand into a position where it could export at a higher value against a higher currency.

"Really it's a tremendous tribute to Kiwi exporters that the economy has been so resilient through this high dollar period."

National Distribution Union (NDU) national secretary Laila Harre said reform was needed and the industry needed to get together to find answers.

She said the urgent problem to tackle was high interest rates.

"What we need to do is tackle the issues that are driving inflation at its source."

She said political parties were unwilling to face measures like capital gains tax on investment properties because they were perceived as unpopular.

"We aren't using the tools that we could to deal with the key contributors to inflation at the moment ... the out of control housing market."

Employers & Manufacturers' Association (EMA) president Alastair Thompson said last week it met Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson to talk about the issues and there were areas of agreement.

Mr Thompson said productivity needed to be improved.

"We need more New Zealand Trade and Enterprise people in our markets overseas assisting exporters, we need lower and better quality government spending."

New Zealand First MP Doug Woolerton said National needed to clearly explain its economic policies if any cross-party talks were likely to be meaningful.

He said NZ First would not support any "slash and burn" policies that could reduce living standards or increase unemployment.

Union leader Laila Harre says Rotorua MP Steve Chadwick's bill for shops to open on Easter Sundays will see workers bullied into working.

Ms Harre, who has been in Rotorua this week in her role as National Distribution Union secretary, told the Daily Post she had about 8000 retail members in the union and a majority were against working on Easter Sunday.

She said the union had always advocated there should be three-and-a-half days a year where there is no trading.

"We have never had a member of ours who works in shops trying to change this policy."

She said despite the bill allowing staff to not work if they don't want to, she said the pressure on those workers, particularly in smaller businesses, would be huge.

"We have Members of Parliament like Steve Chadwick who live in completely different worlds than shop workers.

"Most shop workers live hand to mouth on low wages and are not in a position to stand up and refuse to work.

"It's good to have that protection [in the bill] but it's not worth anything."

Mrs Chadwick said Ms Harre had a valid point and she would be happy to make amendments to her bill if anyone could see a better way.

"If someone gives me the wording, I would be quite happy to put that through as an amendment but no one has."

She said several of her colleagues, including Minister of Labour Ruth Dyson, were working on ways to get stronger worker protection which could end up being an amendment to her bill.

That could include ensuring staff who worked Easter Sunday got time and a half as well as a day in lieu, she said.

Mrs Chadwick's Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill is due to be heard in Parliament next month.

If passed, it will allow local authorities to decide if shops in their area can trade on Easter Sunday.

It will see all workers rostered to work on Easter Sunday covered by the Holidays Act 2003. If passed, local authorities will consult with their communities before deciding whether shops in their areas can open on Easter Sunday.

A retail worker yesterday told MPs that allowing Easter Sunday trading would take away the one Sunday a year she was guaranteed to be able to spend with her family.

Wainuiomata woman Claire Wright, who is married with two teenage children, works at Farmers in Lower Hutt. "Easter Sunday is the one day I look forward to all year - because I work Sunday to Thursday - to have with my family, and because they are religious that's the one day we can all go to church or do family things," she told MPs.

"I feel that people can manage surely one day without the shops being open. I'm sure the shops aren't making any extra money by being open on a Sunday. I think people can change their shopping day to another day."

Ms Wright appeared before the committee as part of National Distribution Union national secretary Laila Harre's submission presentation. Ms Harre said about 400,000 people worked in retail. Most youth workers, 64 per cent, worked in retail and every time a shop opened workers were required in distribution and other roles.

"Our broad opposition is based on a view that - while there are certainly laughable anachronisms and we all know them about the current legislation - we don't view this as a trivial issue. "We don't think the fundamental policy issue of keeping shops closed 3/2 days a year is an anachronistic policy position to take." The union believed a public interest rather than commercial interest position should be taken.

Ms Harre said the union accepted that more exemptions could be needed, but thought present exemptions should also be reviewed. "There could be much narrower criteria that could be applied to an exemption process."

Issues relating to employees, but also family and community interests, would be taken into account. "In a place like Wanaka the overriding public interest and promotion of community events might indeed justify an exemption when the air show was on, but in Rotorua on a typical Easter Sunday there may well not be grounds for an exemption under that sort of criteria."

Also, exemptions should only be for areas with a large influx of visitors on the day. She said protections needed to be included in the bill regarding pay for the holiday.

In its submission, the Wanaka Chamber of Commerce said the rules around exemptions were a mess. For example, souvenir shops could sell goods but photo shops had to shut, even though the dictionary definition of a photo was that it was a souvenir.

New Zealand Chambers of Commerce director Charles Finny told the committee that at a recent meeting members unanimously supported Easter trading. "If passed, the proposed bill will be good for growth in the economy, it will assist efforts to improve productivity in the economy, it will make New Zealand a more desirable tourist destination, it will improve New Zealand's international image and it will allow workers the potential to benefit from the generous provisions of present labour market regulation."

The organisation advocated that rather than extend the exemptions to additional areas, they should be applied nationwide. "Any business wanting to trade on Good Friday or Easter Sunday should be allowed to. We would support a change to this bill to extend its effect across the entire country." If that was impossible, Mr Finny said, all major cities and small centres which had significant visitor numbers should be added to the list of exemptions.

Holiday options

* Parliament's commerce select committee is hearing submissions on two bills - one proposed by Labour MP Steve Chadwick, the other by National MP Jacqui Dean.
* Ms Chadwick's bill aims to give councils the authority to allow shops in their areas to open on Easter Sunday, and Ms Dean's bill would allow shops in some tourist centres to open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

- NZPA