Source: PSA
– 41% say the changes will benefit employers more. Only 11% say workers will benefit more.
– Among part-time workers, those hit hardest by this Bill, just 10% think the changes will help them. 45% say it helps employers.
– Two in three New Zealanders (66%) say workers whose pay varies week to week should receive the same pay on holiday leave as in a typical working week.
New Zealanders can see through the Government’s spin on the latest attack on workers’ rights with a new poll showing the public knows the overhaul of the Holidays Act is taking leave off workers, particularly part-time workers.
“The public overwhelmingly believes the Government’s changes to holidays and sick leave under the Employment Leave Bill will benefit employers, not workers,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
Part-time workers, those working variable hours, sales reps earning commission, health workers and others working beyond contracted hours regularly, bear the brunt of these changes in the bill now before a select committee.
“Far from simplifying the Holidays Act as the Government claims, this Bill sets out to cut the leave of workers, How is that fair?
“This all fits the Government’s pattern of relentlessly attacking the rights of workers at every step over the past two years. This government is the most anti-worker Government that New Zealand has ever seen.
“On top of gutting pay equity, cancelling equal pay claims, it’s reinstated 90-day trials, upended personal grievance processes so workers can be fired at will, suppressed minimum wage rises, and is also trying to undermine their health and safety in the workplace.
“All this is happening to suit ACT’s anti-worker agenda.
“National is standing idly by allowing this latest erosion of rights to happen, while NZ First, so often banging the drum that it is the true party of workers, refuses to walk its talk yet again. It’s a disgrace.
“We call on National and NZ First to stop the Employment Leave Bill from progressing, no political party should cut the pay of workers during a cost of living crisis.”
Public services suffering
The same survey also found 39% of New Zealanders say public services have got worse since the Government came to office in 2023. Only 25% say they have got better.
“When you cut the workforce, services suffer and New Zealanders see it every day. This is not an accident. It is a choice. And this was all before the Government decision to axe one in seven workers, or 8,700 across the country by 2029,” said Fitzsimons.
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.