Legal battle over sleepover shifts demonstrates union role in women’s pay equity struggle

June 23, 2011 by

Horizontal labour market segregation on the basis of gender has been well-entrenched in New Zealand’s economy, including within the care sector which is majority-comprised of women workers. The following article by Kelly Pope – a member of the Christchurch branch of the Workers Party who works as a mental health support person – demonstrates the continued relevance of the workers’ movement and trade unionism in addressing equal pay issues.

In 2007 the Service and Food Workers’ Union (SFWU) and the Public Service Association (PSA) took cases against two major residential service providers in the intellectual disability sector, attempting to gain minimum wage pay for hours spent on sleepover shifts. After a decision by the Employment Relations Authority that considered sleeping over to be work, the issue was appealed to the Employment Court by IHC in May 2009. A support worker who was employed by IHC’s IDEA Services, Phil Dickson, was the individual applicant in this case.

Since then, the Employment Court has found the existing payment of sleepover rates to be in breach of the Minimum Wage Act, ruling in favour of Mr Dickson and the union. A subsequent case taken to the Court of Appeal by IHC has resulted in the same outcome. Since this decision on 16th February 2011, the case has been taken further by IHC and will now be considered by the Supreme Court with a decision expected sometime after this year’s general election. While this long legal process has been unfolding, the PSA has filed additional legal proceedings against more than thirty health and disability support employers also currently paying below minimum wage sleepover rates, including Barnardos, Hawkes Bay DHB, Spectrum Care and Healthcare NZ. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Women, Workers in Struggle

Most recent figures show women still coming off worse under capitalism

June 22, 2011 by

This article was prepared by The Spark editorial board and first appeared in the June 2011 issue of The Spark.

The most recent Statistics New Zealand figures show slight upward trends in terms of employment, income, and labour force participation. By no means can we equate this to a beginning of the end of the recession, as these are very minimal increases outside of and below the scale required to show recovery. One thing certain from the gendered statistics contained in the March 2011 quarter Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) and the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) is that women are still coming off worse under capitalism and are in fact being disproportionately impacted by the recession. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Women

Canada’s election: NDP gains widen space for social struggles

June 22, 2011 by

This article by Roger Annis, a long-time socialist and retired aerospace worker in Vancouver BC, was first published in Green Left Weekly but was also written with publication in The Spark in mind. It was published by Green Left Weekly on May 23 and also in the June issue of The Spark.

The incumbent Conservative Party sailed to victory in Canada’s federal election on May 2 with the first majority government in the federal Parliament since the 2000 election. There was celebration in the boardrooms of the country. The victory caps a decades-long drive by much of Canada’s business elite to fashion a strong national government on a hard-right agenda.

The result is a deep disappointment for progressive-minded people in Canada. The Conservatives led by Stephen Harper will form the most right-wing government in modern Canadian history, extending the regressive path of their two minority governments won in the 2006 and 2008 elections.

But there is much in the election outcome from which to take encouragement. The Conservative vote rose only by a modest two percentage points (to forty percent), notwithstanding the huge sums the party spent on its campaign and the support it received from nearly every daily newspaper in the country. In Quebec, its electoral fortunes continue to decline, down 25 percent from 2008 and 33 percent from 2006. [Read more…]

Filed Under: North America

Defend young workers, fight all anti-worker laws (article & main protest event details)

June 20, 2011 by

By The Spark editors

This weekend there will be demonstrations in a number of cities to oppose the re-introduction of youth rates and to oppose any extension to the new entrant rate provisions.

National has already attacked working people and unions by changing union access rights, introducing new conditions for access to sick leave, and introducing a probationary employment procedure which provides employers with the power to sack workers without reason in the first 90 days of employment.

John Key and National’s Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson have not ruled out a return to youth rates and are clearly putting youth rates back in the frame for discussion. Wilkinson, for instance, has cited high youth unemployment as a reason for the government to take a close look at policies that will give work experience to youth.*

The ability of employers to legally pay youth rates below the adult minimum wage for 16-18 year-olds was brought to an end in 2007. This victory was a result of a combined industrial campaign by Unite Union, street campaign by Unite Union and Radical Youth, and parliamentary campaign led by then Green MP Sue Bradford. This was one of the more significant offensive campaigns waged by the labour movement over the past decade. For a whole generation of younger workers it was certainly the most significant.

We will fight any attempts by the bosses and government to roll back wages and conditions of workers of any age group. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Workers in Struggle

Read the June issue of The Spark here

June 14, 2011 by

June issue of The Spark

This month’s issue of The Spark was delayed because of the involvement of the production team in organising the Workers Power 2011 conference (see report on pages 10-11). There are two additional conference reports from WP members who attended the Resistance conference in Sydney and the Socialist Party Australia conference in Melbourne. This month we have an article on the recent Canada elections from Socialist Voice (Canada) co-editor Roger Annis. A few of us met Roger in 2008 when he came to check out Unite Union in Auckland and we are pleased we have been able to establish some ongoing communication with him. In this issue we include an article that he produced for Green Left Weekly but also with The Spark in mind (we solicited shortly after GLW). So it’s a good issue in terms of expressing living internationalism! In our own backyard we’ve got new copyright laws thrown down, secretive trade negotiations going on, an electoral system referendum coming up, and the emergence of a new party with a working class constituency. Please read on and please support The Spark.

Filed Under: Print edition PDFs
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