A Nine-Day Fortnight for New Zealand?
You may read or hear about this – as one of the most popular (and less silly) ideas that came out of the “Jobs Summit” in New Zealand. The idea is that people (workers – not managers funnily enough) will be asked to take a day off a fortnight and not be paid by the company they work for on that day.
Instead – they are supposed to do training or community work, for which the government (or someone – it’s a bit hazy on this point) – will pay instead of the company. The idea is that everyone (except management?) will take a small cut in wages, meaning that the company will not have to make anyone redundant and can keep all the staff on.
I was a bit peeved at first – wondering why we as taxpayers should fund the 10th day (as I’m assuming we will be), but as Hubby pointed out quite rightly – its probably better to do that and fund someone to retrain, upskill or do community work, than have them redundant, and pick up the tab for them to try and find a new job which could be tricky if everyone is laying off staff. So I’m OK on that score.
What I am NOT ok with is that companies are starting to use the “economy” as an excuse to cut wages already – even when they are still making a profit. Cutting the wages of staff should be an absolute last resort – when it is either that or start making a loss. Some of the behaviour we are already seeing is quite frankly disgusting.
In the IT sector – where decent salaries are not unheard of – we have already seen a guy offered $30k less for a job that it was advertised at “because of the recession”. This was from a company that not only is still making a healthy profit – but also is making MORE profit than last year – and whose share price went up because of it.
This is using people’s fear against them in a revolting fashion. Whether rightly or wrongly – some people in New Zealand ARE scared for their job security – and it means that companies who are not suffering from any economic downturn are quite frankly taking the mick. I honestly have no idea what they expect: it’s not as if they are going to hold onto staff in the long term. Companies are still recruiting – and staff will move to those companies who don’t use current events to exploit them. It is very shortsighted: retaining good staff should be the highest priority – because if you have no staff – you have no one to work for you when the economy improves.
I really do think that New Zealand has a problem with its treatment of staff, and if you are thinking of coming here for a new life: just bear it in mind. You are highly unlikely to have the same legal protection that you are used to if your employer tries to exploit you.
Related posts:
- When is a Nine Day Fortnight only 8 and a bit days long?
- Why is it that Employers and the Tax Payer have to save the economy?
- The Coffee and Cake Jobs Summit.
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