Union members provide information regarding fairness in the workplace, for contract and labour hire workers through the distrbution of leaflets. This action is taking place on 7 October across a number of workplaces which use contract and labour hire workers.

"New Zealand CTU - Action against precarious work"

The New Zealand CTU is campaigning for:
Fair rights
Fair deal
Fair pay

And against:
Casualisation
Contracting out
Cutting jobs

Distributing campaign leaflets to workers on the World Day for Decent Work

Unions mark World Day for Decent Work, 7 October, 2008 - 11:22.

• Employment Law
• News
• Pay and conditions

Unions are marking World Day for Decent Work today with a call for employers to take the lead in guaranteeing labour hire workers the same pay and conditions as regular workers, ahead of legislation coming in requiring them to do so.

“Far too many workers are being employed through labour hire agencies or other third parties rather than directly by their employer,” CTU president Helen Kelly said. “This means they receive lower pay, worse conditions and less job security than workmates who are working alongside them doing the exact same job.”

Legislation recently introduced will ensure workers employed by labour hire companies get the same pay and conditions as the people they work alongside, if there’s a collective agreement on site. Today union members will be talking to labour hire workers on their sites, explaining what rights they have now and how the proposed amendments will help them.

“We are also writing to companies asking them to become a leader in this area and implement the changes to comply with the new law now, rather than wait until legislation is passed.”

“Some employers already do comply – such as NZ Steel, where EPMU members have had for twenty years a clause in their collective agreement ensuring any contractors on site will have the same wages as a union member covered by the collective agreement.”

“We’re also asking companies using labour hire to only do business with companies that will comply with the new law now,” Helen Kelly said.

A decent life starts with decent work 7 October, 2008

Today is World Day for Decent Work and to mark the day the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union is pushing the message of Fair Rights, Fair Pay and a Fair Deal for workers here and around the world with their "They Stand for Greed/We Stand for Decent Work" advertising campaign.

World Day for Decent Work is about union members from around the world drawing attention to shared issues and highlighting the fact that globalisation isn’t just about international finance but about all workers from all nations taking part in the global economy and benefiting from it fairly.

This year the theme is "precarious work", a term used to describe work such as contracting and third-party labour hire that frequently involves few meaningful work rights or job security but has grown significantly both internationally and in New Zealand over the last two decades.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says the growing trend of shifting responsibility for employees, including their wages and conditions, away from the business that actually uses the work is about driving down wages and living standards.

"They call it flexibility but it’s a device to disempower workers, to make it harder for them to negotiate with the real user of their labour.

"It’s just another part of the culture of corporate greed that has been the basis of business life for so long and that has now been totally exposed in the collapse of the finance industry worldwide over the last few months.

"The same people who have been so cavalier about global credit and finance are the same people who for decades have been telling governments to deregulate labour markets to allow more casual and labour hire arrangements even though jobs like this are uneconomic for so many who have them.

"If we want to get the world economy back on track, then decent and dignified working arrangements that allow families to survive economically are a start.

"Our advertising highlights the link between the mistreatment of workers and the attacks on their rights and the collapse of the financial markets, and that link is corporate greed.

"World Day of Decent Work is about underscoring the fact that globalisation should be about all workers around the world getting a share in the world’s wealth, not just the privileged few."

The EPMU’s advertisements are running in the Dominion Post, the Press, the Waikato Times and the Auckland community newspapers. Posters are being run in the Auckland CBD and on worksites nationwide.

A copy of the newspaper advertisements can be downloaded here:

http://www.epmu.org.nz/assets/Work-Rights/Print-DOM.pdf

A copy of the colour poster can be downloaded here:

http://www.epmu.org.nz/assets/Work-Rights/Poster-A4.pdf

Info from http://www.epmu.org.nz