Source: PSA
A National MP has used tax cuts from 637 days ago to justify cutting workers’ pay in 2026 – a startling admission about how the National Party really treats essential workers.
At this morning’s Education and Workforce Select Committee hearing on the Employment Leave Bill, National’s Carl Bates accused the PSA of having “significantly over dramatised” the impact of the bill on workers, and demanded to know whether the union supported the Government’s 2024 tax cuts – as if a tax cut nearly two years ago justified legislating pay cuts for essential workers today.
“This is giving with one hand and taking with the other, and New Zealanders won’t be fooled by it,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
“National was not upfront when it delivered its tax cuts in July 2024 that essential workers who do overtime and work anti-social hours would face cuts to their leave and pay less than two years later. If this was the plan all along, workers deserved to know.
“Is Carl Bates really saying it’s ok to disadvantage people now based on the tax cuts they got two years ago? This is Tory maths, rich coming from an accountant. It simply doesn’t add up.
“A tax cut is the Government taking less of what you earn. This bill is the Government legislating to pay you less when you take leave. They are completely different things, and it is insulting to suggest one cancels out the other.
“Bates pointed to one worker earning $140,000 and claimed they got $1,000 a year from the tax cuts. But that worker only earns $140,000 because they work overtime and anti-social hours doing essential work. This bill would significantly cut their pay.
“Is this now the position of the Prime Minister and the National Party – that workers have to offset the loss of leave payments against their tax cuts? Can workers expect other cuts to their take-home pay on the basis that they got a tax cut in 2024?
“This morning, the committee heard from care and support workers looking after people in their nineties, mental health nurses caring for young people in crisis, social workers protecting children, corrections officers keeping communities safe, meat inspectors underpinning a multi-billion dollar export industry, meteorologists whose forecasts keep pilots safe, and the very workers who make Parliament itself function.
“Every single one explained how this bill will cut their pay in a cost-of-living crisis.
“It’s a startling admission about how the National Party treats workers. In a cost-of-living crisis, people doing extra work to care for and protect New Zealanders cannot be forced to accept less pay for it.
“The PSA put workers in front of this committee so MPs could hear directly from the people affected. Instead of listening, Carl Bates lectured them. That tells you everything about who this Government really serves.
“The PSA strongly opposes this bill, which ignores the cost-of-living crisis the Government promised to fix, and will be campaigning hard against it.”
Background information
The Employment Leave Bill proposes to repeal the Holidays Act 2003 and replace it with a new framework. Under the bill, leave would accrue in hours rather than weeks, and additional/casual hours would receive a 12.5% Leave Compensation Payment instead of accruing leave entitlements. Workers who regularly work overtime, anti-social hours or are on-call would receive significantly less pay when they take leave.
The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.
