What are Fletcher’s playing at?
Fletcher Building is one of New Zealand’s largest companies. They are cutting hundreds of jobs, across Australia and New Zealand.
Speaking after the company’s annual general meeting in Auckland today, chief executive Jonathan Ling said the job cuts were ”significant”, although its total workforce globally comprises around 20,000 people. He didn’t know the exact number of redundancies, but said there had been a ”few hundred” job losses in Placemakers here and across the Tasman, 22 in Wellington construction and a further 200 job losses in Australia across the board.
Ok, so sometimes this is unavoidable. There is a recession, and because house sales are affected quite badly, and lending has dried up for people t0 buy, build or renovate I guess it’s not a huge shock. What is a huge shock is:
Meanwhile, the board today sought shareholder approval to increase the pool of directors’ remuneration by $500,000 to $2 million per annum
Now this is what I would call an “Occupy Wellington” moment.
How the hell can any company claim it has to make job cuts while at the same time wanting to use $500,000 of the saved money to pay the bosses. That is just wrong.
They make some excuses for why they should be allowed to do this, and apparently had 90% votes in favour via Proxy Votes (from experience that seems to amount to shareholders signing to say the fox gets to take charge of the hens). I’m all for high pay for good staff.
But I think it is just sickening that this is still going on, and at a time when there should be a spotlight on this kind of behaviour. Bottom line – if the company has $500,000 going spare every year for directors pay increases, it should use that to keep more staff on.
Six figure jobs
The Seek job search website has (finally) followed TradeMe’s lead and now have a ‘jobs paying over $100k‘ category . This is said to be in response to the large increase in the number of positions attracting those salaries, although all the numbers I can find quoted are only percentages, so it can be a bit tricky checking the real picture.
The largest slice of the currently advertised positions are in their IT category {148/3152}, followed by Engineering {359/3152} in quite a distant second, with accounting (285/3152) also placing. In comparison TradeMe are currently listing 554 IT jobs, out of 1332 in total with a $100k+ salary.
Now, the real picture is a bit smaller than this. We’ve mentioned before about potential overlap in advertising for ‘the job I’m leaving and the job I’m going to’ distorting the apparent figures. Also, some positions have multiple different advertising slants. The difference between a consultant, architect or IT specialist can sometimes be nothing beyond the advertised job title. So agencies try different headlines hoping to catch your eye. So don’t be surprised to find the same job description for a wide variety of different job titles.
Plus numerous positions are being advertised with multiple agencies, so it can pay to dig around and pick which agency to apply through if you fancy one of these positions. Often you will find that the actual recruiting company is also advertising the same role via Seek or TradeMe.
While the agencies will of course tell you that you stand a much better chance applying through them, experience shows few agents actually add value (there’s a shock!). The ones that will are normally the agents who have worked with you previously – perhaps in placing you in your current role. When it comes to interviews, the recruiting agencies should be able to help you out with the nuances of who is interviewing you, company values etc. more than a simple perusal of the companies website. Set against that, good personal networks should be able to give you better information.
At the end of the day if you apply directly, it can mean that the hiring company saves $20k+ in ‘recruitment’ costs. Money that would otherwise be paid to the agency as a success fee. There’s certainly a few decisions, which while they’ve not only rested on that factor, have certainly swung in the direction of a direct applicant rather than a recruitment agency referral because it saves that $20k.
(Don’t expect of course that you will be seeing the $20k!)
Over 1,320 jobs paying over $100,000 in New Zealand
Back in May 2009 (jeeze I’ve been blogging too long!) I posted about the fact that there were 735 jobs listed on Trade Me with salaries quoted over $100,000. That number has nearly doubled.
Now there’s actually 10,355 jobs currently listed on TM, which means that the proportion of high paying jobs is actually down ever so slightly from 14% to 12.7%. But IT and then Engineering are still the most likely jobs to get you the bigger bucks. The proportion of High Paid IT jobs in Wellington is also down slightly – at 36% of the total IT market.
And it should be remembered that just because a company in New Zealand lists a job as paying over $100,000 it does not mean that this is the salary they will end up wanting to pay you. So just be wary.
Do you have to pay yourself a “fair” wage?
This is a question for the self employed – and is going to be answered one way another through a supreme court case.
Hearings on the appeal by Christchurch orthopaedic surgeons Ian Penny and Gary Hooper concluded in the Supreme Court in Wellington this afternoon. The pair argue their decision to re-route income through companies and family trusts was not a tax avoidance arrangement.
In doing so, they cut their personal incomes by as much as 80 per cent from levels prevailing before the top personal tax rate rose to 39 per cent in April 2000.
While the surgeons admit these were not “commercially realistic” salaries, they contend there is no such concept in the Income Tax Act and cannot be ruled to be avoidance.
Basically – they used to earn about $500-$600,000 a year, but once they set up the structures, they “earned” about $120,000 a year, and used the structures to “pay” other family members.
Which is basically what myself and hubby do – with one major difference: we were advised that income tax law states that the sharing of income must be realistic, and in proportion to the amount of effort each of us puts towards earning the money. Which means that I cannot be paid the same as hubby, and it is his effort that earns the money.
That doesnt mean I cant get a share of it – but it has to be comensurate with the effect my work has. Now I actually do a fair number of hours each week on Hubby’s behalf – so I get a “token” salary – and overall we do pay less personal income tax because of it.
But hubby still earns personally the same amount per month that he did while working at IBM – so we know it is a fair salary for the work he is doing. And thus we wont get into lots of trouble with the tax man!
I have met many people who believe you can simply split income – with no thought to doing so with reasonbale care – it’s a bit of a Kiwi Urban Myth. I guess the outcome of this case will tell us one way or another. Could be interesting.
And I could be getting a pay rise.
Immigrant carers are being kicked out of NZ after the Christchurch Earthquake.
Filipino rest-home workers say they feel “used” after working 18-hour days following the February earthquake, only to be discarded once New Zealand is “done” with them.
Several Filipino caregivers in Christchurch have had their work permit applications denied in recent weeks, with Immigration New Zealand saying there are Kiwis, made redundant because of the February 22 quake, who can do the job.
This is just so sad. The employers actually cannot find Kiwis available to do the work, the Filipino workers cannot find other work (or get a work visa for another job), and the Kiwis out of work because of the earthquake apparently do not want to work as caregivers.
So basically – everyone suffers, and sending the immigrants home won’t make the slightest bit of difference except that the people in the Care Homes will no longer have enough staff to look after them.
This is one of those situation where as Immigrants we just need to accept that political expediency will always be vastly more important than our personal need to be where we want to be. Immigration need to be seen to doing whatever they can can to ensure that Kiwi’s unemployed because of the earthquake are not disadvantaged. I do understand and agree with that – but what about when those Kiwi’s won’t do certain jobs?
I also think its vitally important that potential immigrants understand that Work Visas are for temporary work shortages. They are not permanent – and Immigration does have the right – and sometimes actually has no choice – to refuse to renew a work visa.
Those denied their visas were sent a letter saying they were overstayers in New Zealand, she said.
Well, way to go INZ! That is where I feel they step over the line. There is just no need to behave like that given the circumstances. Would it really kill INZ to give these people a visitors visa for a few months rather than label them “overstayers”? These people have to go through hell now – with their dreams shattered – and INZ labels them as criminals because they just have the sense to come up with a better solution. Clearly the careworkers have not broken any laws – they have – like many other before them – ended up in an illegal situation because of the Immigration Department and its nutty rules.
Immigration New Zealand head Nigel Bickle said work visas could not be granted when Kiwis were available to do the job.
“available” to do the job and willing to do the job are two entirely different things.
About 600 rest-home staff were made redundant after the February quake.
And I would those people would be stepping forward to take the places that INZ are making available to them. Because this is what INZ are seeing – there’s 600 care workers who need a job – and they cannot allow an immigrant to take that job instead.
Work Visas – despite what many people will have you believe – you are never guaranteed that they will be renewed and you have no right to stay permanently. If you come here on a Work Visa – or anything that isn’t a Permanent Residence Visa – make sure you have a plan to get back home .
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Why do so many Kiwis leave for Australia?
Filed under: Cost of living, Economics, Getting to New Zealand, Life in New Zealand
The herald ran a piece asking kiwis for thier thoughts on whether they are considering moving to Australia. I thought it was interesting because for a lot of immigrants there’s a bit of a toss up between going to Aus or NZ – things like this give a different perspective on the whole issue. A frequent complaint about us immigrants from Kiwis is that we only come here so that we can get residence for 2 years and then go to Aus. Of course it ignores the fact that people also get residence in Asutralia as a way of getting into NZ because it’s easer for people to get jobs in Australia.
It also completley ignores the fact that the vast majority of people so sick of New Zealand that they move to Australia – are KIWIS.
Not Immigrants.
Here’s a selection of some of the more colourful comments (inclusion in no way should be taken as a sign that I agree with these comments)- but I really recommend working through them all.
“NZ – where we are forced to pay global prices for our products – but cannot earn global incomes. As a social experiment, NZ is a failure, if not a disaster.
New Zealand employers need to realise that they are in a global contest for talent. To attract and retain the best workers they need to benchmark pay and conditions with the rest of the world, especially Australia.
Of course, we may never be able to match what is offered overseas but more of our companies must strive to become globally competitive to “raise the bar” on our wages and salaries. New Zealanders are some of the most mobile people in the world and have proven they have no qualms about leaving New Zealand for greater opportunities
I am going to Australia because of the complete lack of job security and career options in New Zealand. Five years out of ten NZ has a recession and there is no sign that change is on the horizon.
Number one is because of the money but a close second is all the PC rubbish that goes on in this country. A particular annoyance is the prefrential treatment of Maori and the amount of tax dollars spend on Treaty settlements that would be better used elsewhere.
Our polititions have been way too sucessful in making their policy buying billionaire mates very rich. Unfortunately they forgot to leave some leftovers for the local peasants.
Yes me and my family are moving in october, we have A young family with two kids under the age of three and the only way we can give them the best in life with more opportunities is if we move over.
I have to say I love new zealand but with our pay rates staying the same and only climbing A little each year but the price of everything going up including mortgages, rates, rent and normal cost of living were only going around in A little rat race and only have the option to move.
We live in australia (qld), but cant wait to return to nz, the weather is awful, too humid and hot, in the winter its always very windy so we dont even get to use our boat, the fishing is crap also.
The aussies dont look after their elderly and nz’ers get no help unless you become a citizen (not even nz flood victims), we wish we had never wasted so much money and come over.Its not all its cracked up to be, cost of living very much the same as nz, fuel rising, food prices high, nz is still the best place to be.
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Congratulations to Hubby
Because he found out today that he passed the exams we traveled to Sydney for in November (SABSA – Sherwood Associates Business Security Architecture – gee – that sounds like a whole load of fun eh?) Not only that be the smart alec got 94% on one paper and 98% on the other one – which annoyingly means that he has now scored higher on an exam than I have. Also my high score was on an aromatherapy exam – so not exactly taxing to be honest – but hey – I really can’t have him thinking he’s smarter than me.
Anyway, in honour of his achievement, I am sharing the following Dilbert Cartoon which (in the way that these things happen) just coincides with Hubby having to ask some questions of good Ol’ IBM – cos he’s now their client.
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Latest Trade Me salary survey results.
The upshot – you’ll get paid more if you live in Wellington than in Auckland – despite what most people think, and one fo my local towns, Masterton, is at the bottom of the heap for wages.
And IT Architects get paid a lot.
Of course – this is a very blunt instrument to determine what wages people are getting. Most of the jobs in Hubby’s field actually don’t state a salary for example. And there can be a very big difference between the advertised salary – which is there to hook you, and what you actually get paid once all the excuses for it won’t be what was advertised have been thrown around.
Still, it’s an interesting snapshot.
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New Zealand gets to keep The Hobbit – can we bill the Unions?
Filed under: Jobs & Work, Life in New Zealand, Only in New Zealand
The news has just come out – the two Hobbit Films will be filmed in New Zealand after two days of talks between the government and Warner Bros. But it is going to cost us $25m USD ($33m NZD). A cost that (despite all bitching to the contrary) we would not have had to pay had the unions not thought they could hold the films to ransom.
The details of the deal are:
- Government will tomorrow introduce a bill to clarify law on contractors for the film industry (only)
- A widening of the criteria for major film tax rebates which will come up at US$7.5m per film
- Govt to commit US$10m towards marketing of the films, in exchange for NZ tourism information being included in materials such as DVDs
- Govt and Warners to work together to promote NZ as a film production location and a tourist destination.
- We will be hosting one of the world premiers (Weyhey!!!! thats great for Wellington – I assume that Robyn Malcolm will not be attending?)
(List copied from Kiwiblog – apart from the last one - that was all me).
Well, at least now the people who claim this was all blown out of proportion just so that WB can get extra tax breaks have something of a fact to work with.
But the lies coming out from the Actors union are still continuing, and Peter Jackson has continued to release evidence to prove they are lying their butts off.
In an email circulated yesterday to members of Actor’s Equity from their executive the following claim is made:
“All NZ Equity sought was to meet with the production and discuss the conditions under which performers would be engaged….This request to meet was backed by the International Federation of Actors (FIA) and performers’ unions around the world including SAG and Equity UK. The request was in the first instance made privately, without the glare of the media on August 17. “
The letter that was sent can be downloaded here.
Recently, The International Federation of Actors (FIA) became aware that the production of “The Hobbit” intends to hire performers under non-union contracts. For this reason FIA, at its most recent meeting, unanimously passed the following motion:
“Resolved, that the International Federation of Actors urges each of its affiliates to adopt instructions to their members that no member of any FIA affiliate will agree to act in the theatrical feature film “The Hobbit” until such time as the producer has entered into a collective bargaining agreement with the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance for production in New Zealand providing for satisfactory terms and conditions for all performers employed on the production”.
FIA therefore encourages you to meet immediately with representatives of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance in order to reach an agreement covering all performers engaged on this production.
In the first instance could you please make contact with Simon Whipp of the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance.”
Peter Jackson goes on to say:
“This is the first time I was made aware of the issue. It was the first time a meeting was ever requested and it was clear from the letter, they had already voted to blacklist us, before even asking for one conversation with me. I am sick and tired of hearing Equity say ‘All we ever wanted was a meeting,’ because it’s disingenuous – they fail to add that from the outset, they had a gun to our head.”
“It just made me incredibly angry, I wondered how can a union behave like this? How could Simon Whipp initiate an international strike action against our film with no prior vote from the Kiwi membership?”
When NZ Equity did finally vote on the issue they didn’t ratify the international ban but, came up with a watered down version of the wording. “They couldn’t even agree to endorse an industrial action that had been taken out in their name. Frankly, the fact that all of this was driven by an Australian union official, only made me angrier. “
You know – this is one of those situations where you get this really weird Kiwi thing where someone makes an almighty cock-up – and rather than copping to it, admitting it, and apologise for it – they lie, and just keep on lying – refuse to even acknowledge there is a problem. While there is a lot in the Kiwi psyche to be very proud of – this just stinks. The people who have caused this have probably damaged their reputation indelibly. One of the key truisms of life in New Zealand – especially with Work here – is that this is a very small country and everyone knows you. You get a bad reputation here, and you are pretty much stuffed.
It’s actually something that has been used as a thinly veiled threat to hubby before now – don’t rock the boat (where have we heard that before?). But it works both ways. Act like a bully in the workplace – it gets around. Stamp your feet and cause a worldwide union boycott of a film – oddly enough you are going to end up looking like a right pillock – especially when you get caught out lying though your backside every 5 minutes.
“Maybe she’s just a lying liar who lies.”
Jeanessa @ LowCarbFriends (Something that has absolutely nothing to do with this story – I just love the quote!)
I am glad New Zealand won this fight. I am glad that the hobbit gets to be made here. I am disgusted that a group of people have cost this country $25m USD because they were so bloody stupid and egotistical, and these same people simply refuse to accept any responsibility for it. I hope they get billed for every last cent.
Finally – this was a full page ad taken out in the Dom Post today – it’s just brilliant, and says everything you need to know about the pride a lot of people have in their country and their film industry. And quite rightly too.
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Saving The Hobbits.
Today was Labour Day in New Zealand. And today was the day I attended my first ever Rally. This one was to show that people want to support Peter Jackson and the people that work for him – that we do not think he is a “spoiled brat” – and that he should not be vilified becuase he cant personally give a small group of actors an agreement that they can get standard terms and conditions on any and every job they get offered – even the ones he isn’t involved in.
To me – Peter Jackson and his team are the epitome of what is great about New Zealand. They don’t care that its a small country, they don’t care that theres only 4 million people here. They don’t care that we don’t yet have the best of everything in the world. All they care about is that here – you can BE the best in world – you can DO the best in the world, and you can damn well MAKE the best in the world.
I cant really compare this rally with others – but it was a very friendly and warm atmosphere.
The issue is still rumbling on: Warner Bros are speaking to Jackson and the Government Tomorrow. There are still some people who truly seem to believe that WB have somehow engineered all this to cop a better tax break from the NZ Government. To my knowledge – this is one of those things that just gets repeated so often – that people think it is true – but the only people saying it are the damn actors union and the journalists – and anyone who agrees with them. PJ hasn’t said he needs more tax break, and WB haven’t either.
The Actors involved (those who are prepared to say who they are) still seem to be coming up with a new version of the story every day. It has even been claimed that there was no international boycott – which is an interesting attempt at spin. There is no contrition – just a lament that they too want the Hobbit to be filmed here. That I actually believe. I honestly think that they just never expected PJ to take this snafu public – and let everyone know that his film was being held hostage. I don’t believe that they thought for one minute their actions would have the consequences they did. But they did have dramatic consequences – and continually refusing to front up and take some responsibility for the problems caused has just undermined the union, and a few actors in particular.
Sir Richard Taylor – Weta Digital
Sure – we need to fight for improved wages and conditions in New Zealand. But we need to do it for everyone. If this debacle has shown one thing – its that there are too many people in the unions here – the head of the Council of Trade Unions, Helen Kelly, for one who believe : “All workers are equal – but some workers are more equal than others”. Thats just not true. You do not have to be a member of a union to have work rights. Many of the people who would lose their jobs if the Hobbit was taken offshore are indeed union members – but they don’t count it seems. The unions should be fighting for everyone – not just a chosen few, and not just at a time its politically expedient for them – which right now in New Zealand seems to be the case. Becuase it is worth remembering that wages were kept low, and taxes high, and work terms and conditions were still appalling in New Zealand under the last Government -and that was at a time of financial boom.
Most of the staff made redundant at IBM could have used union representation. Not everyone has the will, the means or the sheer bloody-mindedness to take on a company that screws them over. But using your union to screw a company over for no other reason than you think it can get you what you want – even if they simply cannot do what you want – and they actually haven’t done anything wrong is a blatant misuse of that union – and the union movement.
Theres an interesting article here – an interview with Simon Whipp – hes the Aussie in charge of the Union. He makes it clear that they tried to talk with the producers of Outrageous Fortune, The Cult, and This is Not My Life – and failed. So my question is – seeing how your union members were actually involved in those shows – why the hell didn’t they refuse to work on them until standard T&C’s were written???? I can tell you – my life would have been significantly improved with a different set cast on TINML!
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