Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
by Chris
It seems that the Government in Australia are starting to finally act like their namesake, despite a worrying pitch to the right which even had staunch Howard supporters nodding their head in approval.
The Labor-lead government have started to undo the damage caused by the Liberal Party by firstly throwing out the shocking “WorkChoices” package and bringing in a set of Employment Standards to restore the rights of workers in Australia to the howls from the opposition party telling us they “might increase the cost of employing people”. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that was the point.
Some standards include a 38-hour work week, lots of changes to both paid and unpaid leave, redundancy and changes to termination laws as well.
Update: Looks like The Standard got here first. With the same links. Damnit. But they do have a link to the actual legislation so peruse at your leisure.
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
by Chris
photo credit: Simon Oosterman
Last week, I sent an email to Brad Cranston, General Manager of Bunnings Warehouse New Zealand expressing my displeasure on the handling of negotiations with their workers union, NDU (NRT, The Standard). I have a few friends involved in this industrial action and spoke up not on their behalf, but by their side. It seems that from the people I know that contacted him, I am the only one that recieved a reply so far.
Thank you for your correspondence, as I am sure you will appreciate there are two sides to every story.
We have been negotiating with the National Distribution Union since May 2007,during this time we have lifted the average wage for all team members by 6.4%.This includes wages for union members despite being unable to reach agreement with the NDU. In addition Bunnings has also provided additional benefits which the NDU chooses to ignore such as 6% contribution to Kiwisaver, an offer to all team members of $1000 worth of shares in the company at the cost of one dollar, bonuses for all team members measured against store targets, dividends on shareholdings, to name a few.(around 80% of Bunnings NZ workers are shareholders)
Although the NDU publicly includes all Bunnings workers by insinuation in its press releases and pamphlets in fact they represent a little over 300 of our 2400 team members of which less tan 200 have joined in the industrial action taken.
We have a strong commitment to employing great people who want to work for us because it is a great place to work and in the main we believe we are achieving that goal despite the activities of the NDU.
I realise it is your choice where you shop but appreciate the opportunity to put the other side of the issue to you.
Ok, Fine. In my reply to him I acknowledged that the judging renumeration on wages only is flawed – but I wonder how many of those benifits are also offered to Australian workers, along with their wages. I like the 6% contribution to Kiwisaver – employers are only required to contribute 1% rising to 4% over the next 4 years. However, I bet you dollars to donuts that their counterparts in Australia get those benifits too (minus Kiwisaver – they have compulsory super).
Anyone that works/worked there feel like commenting?
