Latest news with #BrookevanVelden
Scoop
3 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
NZ Law Change Restores Balance – Fairer Rules For Partial Strikes
Hon Brooke van Velden Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety The Government has passed a change to the Employment Relations Act that reinstates the ability for employers to make pay deductions during partial strikes – making the system fairer for all, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden announced today. 'These changes will help both employers and unions to return to the bargaining table and restores the law to what it was before the previous government removed this option in 2018. 'I acknowledge the right of workers to strike in support of their collective bargaining claims, the right to strike remains,' says Ms van Velden. 'The changes were needed to ensure a fairer bargaining process and minimise the disruption partial strikes have caused to public and customer services. 'The key benefit for all workers and the public is less disruption to our communities – partial strikes had serious impacts on Kiwi families, students, patients, and other workers across our workplaces,' says Ms van Velden. Some of the impacts included MRI and nuclear medicine technologists limiting scans, around 50 per cent fewer procedures were done. That meant delays in early cancer treatment, growing waitlists, increased outsourcing costs and pressure on front-line staff to pick up the work of others participating in the partial strikes. In 2023, teachers took partial strike action, refusing to teach certain year levels on specific days. This disrupted student learning and made it hard for some parents to work. 'Rebalancing collective bargaining settings will support the Government's priority to deliver better public services, by reducing disruption and maintaining a high quality of service,' says Ms van Velden. This new law allows for pay to be deducted during partial strikes, but it's up to each affected employer to decide how they respond to partial strikes when they occur. Notes: What is partial strike and what did it mean prior to this change A partial strike is industrial action that would normally involve turning up to work but refusing to partake in parts of the job. Until now, if an employee was on a partial strike, their employer could not deduct their pay unless they suspended the employee or issued a lockout notice. Other noted impacts on the communities: Since mid-September 2024, NZDF PSA union members have been 'working-to-rule', and from November, they have been taking coordinated breaks and stopped working at heights or off-site. In response, the Minister of Defence has authorised uniformed personnel to cover civilian work in some selected areas. In September 2024, train operators in Wellington began work-to-rule industrial action including refusing shift changes, leading to disruption for travellers. What these changes mean Employers can respond to a partial strike by either: a) reducing an employee's pay by a proportionate amount, calculated in accordance with a specified method that is based on identifying the work that the employee will not be performing due to the strike, or b) deducting 10 percent of their wages. Employers will have to provide written notification to employees that they will be reducing their pay before the deduction is made (the amount of deduction is not required in the notice). If the union believes the employer has incorrectly applied a pay deduction, the union must advise the employer of that as soon as practicable, after receiving the employer's information on how they calculated the specified pay deduction if relevant. The union can apply to the Employment Relations Authority, who can determine whether the employer has correctly applied the deduction. Employers do not have to deduct pay in response to partial strikes – this simply provides an additional tool for how they can respond to a partial strike, if it works for them.
Scoop
5 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
NZ Government Out Of Touch On Employment Rights
The commitment at the 113th International Labour Organization conference to develop a binding Convention for securing decent work in the platform economy shows how disconnected and out of touch the New Zealand government is when it comes to employment rights. 'This decision is a huge step towards establishing internationally recognised labour rights for digital platform workers,' said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges. 'This is the mandate for much-needed regulation of digital labour platforms and by doing so, ensuring that innovation is not achieved at the expense of workers' rights. 'It's really telling, that while the international community comes together to support platform workers, Brooke van Velden has introduced a new Employment Relations Amendment Bill that will undermine the rights of those very workers in Aotearoa. 'Her Bill, which intends to misclassify workers as contractors and remove their legal right to challenge their employment status in court, is a severe undermining of worker rights. It is completely out of touch, and the Bill must be voted down', said Ansell-Bridges.
Scoop
19-06-2025
- Scoop
62 Percent Fewer Scam Texts Reported After Internal Affairs Crackdown
Minister of Internal Affairs Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has made significant progress in tackling scams in New Zealand, with a 62 per cent drop in reports of SMS scams in 2024 from 2023, following the Department's investigations into scammers. The Department's 2024 Digital Messaging Transparency Report, published this week, details some of the actions the Department has taken to catch people perpetrating scams, including by conducting search warrants and seizing equipment. 'Scams cause serious financial and emotional harm, often preying on vulnerable people in our communities. I'm pleased the Department's work is making a real impact in reducing scams and holding perpetrators accountable,' says Ms van Velden. In 2024 the Department received over 103,000 reports of SMS scams, conducted six search warrants, and seized almost $400,000 worth of scam equipment as well as $162,000 in cash. One of the search warrants resulted in the arrest of a 19-year-old Auckland man and the seizure of a cell site simulator. A cell site simulator is a false cell tower which tricks nearby mobile devices into connecting to the fraudulent network so that scam text messages can be sent to the connected phones. Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson, who is the lead anti-scams Minister, welcomes the report's findings and highlights the Government's increasing focus on keeping New Zealanders safer from scammers. 'Online financial scams cause significant harm to New Zealanders – reported losses have been nearly $200 million a year, but some estimate this to be as high as $2 billion. Often scams affect the more vulnerable people in our community and our loved ones. We are taking action to change this. I intend to make announcements in due course on further work we intend to do to reduce scams across New Zealand,' says Mr Simpson. 'The prevalence of scams also hurts the wider economy, as people become less comfortable with transacting online. Building back people's trust by reducing scams is part of rebuilding the economy and reducing the cost of living,' says Ms van Velden.
Scoop
18-06-2025
- Business
- Scoop
On Sacrificing Worker Rights On The Altar Of Commerce
In the interests of efficiency, maybe Brooke van Velden should just outsource her Workplace Relations and Safety Ministry to Business NZ and be done with it. Because (obviously) corporate wishes are her command. In the interests of efficiency, maybe Brooke van Velden should just outsource her Workplace Relations and Safety Ministry to Business NZ and be done with it. Because (obviously) corporate wishes are her command. Within a short time in the job, van Velden has trashed a decade of pay equity work, given the 90 day fire-at-will power back to employers, reduced worker rights to bargain collectively, and signalled her intention to reduce sick pay entitlements for part-time workers. Despite New Zealand's horrendous record of workplace deaths, injuries and illness, van Velden plans to reduce Worksafe's enforcement role and revert to the employer-written, voluntary codes of health and safety that New Zealand experimented with in the 1990s, and which directly contributed to the Pike River tragedy. In the process, she plans to reduce the safety requirements placed on employers and company directors – while at the same time, making workers more responsible for dealing with unsafe conditions in the workplace. It goes on. As promised, van Velden is also amending current employment law in ways that will make gig economy workers unable to argue in court that their actual working conditions entitle them to the same rights as employees. In the sane legislative package, she will also restrict access to personal grievance processes. In the light of all this, media reports that 'business leaders are backing [these]changes' will come as a surprise only to people unaware that the Pope is a Catholic. The certainties of injustice By virtually privatising her portfolio, van Velden is giving up any pretence of pursuing a fair and equal balance in the workplace, between the rights of employers and the rights of workers. As Dennis Maga of the Workers First Union says, these law changes (to do with contractor/employee status) are being pushed through Parliament in order to pre-empt the Supreme Court hearing next month of an appeal against a ruling by the Employment Court that four Uber drivers were employees, not contractors. According to Maga, the government 'has no regard for evidence, no time for judicial process.' Moreover: 'Instead of strengthening our protection against exploitation, Brooke van Velden is laying out the red carpet for employers like Uber to come into New Zealand and take advantage of cheap labour with next to no rights, and no ability to challenge their employment status.' Shrinking Sick Leave On the campaign trail back in August 2023, National had promised that it would not reduce the number of sick days employees receive. Luxon said he wouldn't get rid of the 10 days of sick leave which was increased from five by Labour in 2021. 'It is what it is now and it's passed and we won't be changing it now,' Luxon told reporters. What van Velden is working on – with National's support – is a reduction in sick leave entitlements, by shifting to a so called 'pro rata' system whereby an entitlement to sick leave accrues less readily over time. Currently, all workers – full-time, part-time or casual – are entitled to 10 days of sick leave if they have been with their employer continuously for six months, and have worked an average 10 hours a week, and at least one hour in every week, or 40 hours in every month. van Velden clearly intends to introduce a pro rate system in which sick leave entitlements in future will differ more sharply between full time and part time workers. As more and more work gets casualised, employers who rely on casual labour have an obvious interest in seeing a reduction in worker entitlements. How many workers stand to be affected? As of the first quarter of this year, there were 584,000 part time workers in this country and nearly 70% of them – 404,000 in all –were women. As with the coalition government's demolition of pay equity, any shift to a tougher pro rate system for part-time workers will disproportionately affect women. At this point, much will depend on how van Velden calculates her 'pro-rata' system – will sick leave accrue in proportion to how many hours are worked per week, or how many days of the week are worked? Incredibly, van Velden could not/would not comment to RNZ's Lisa Owen on which measure she has in mind, or even – on principle – which measure would be more fair to the employees affected. For many workers, the measure chosen could significantly affect how their sick leave accrues. A Owen pointed out, some people – e.g. in the health system – work 40 hours, but this can be compressed into four day shifts. Alternatively, other workers may work several short shifts, spread out over an entire week. So which pro rata measure is it to be – hours, or days per week ? van Velden isn't saying, at least not until Cabinet has signed off, and it has become a fait accompli. Even more incredibly, the RNZ interview revealed that van Velden is pursuing a 'solution' – ie. reduced access by part-time workers to sick leave – before gathering any evidence that a problem actually exists. After all, sick leave entitlements are only a cost burden to employers if and when that sick leave gets taken – and, Owen asked, has van Velden got any evidence that the part-time workers in this country are taking disproportionate amounts of sick leave? No, van Velden indicated. Finally, Owen asked again about the likely impact on women workers given their dual roles in the paid work force, and as the main child carers at home. Many are single parents, or have partners also working shifts in order to make ends meet. So when school kids get sick, and their mothers'sick leave entitlements have been reduced, Own asked, what will happen? van Velden's reply could hardly have been more utopian: She dismissed concerns that changing the sick leave entitlements would disproportionately affect women, saying 'if we truly care about gender equality, we shouldn't have this assumption that women are the ones in a relationship taking time off to look after their children when they're sick'. Yep, when the reality faced by low income women is in conflict with an ideological principle that serves the interests of commerce, you can always rely on the ACT Party to defend the principle, no matter how unjust its outcomes may be. Parlour music for moderns Some music critic once likened the effect of listening to a lot of Erin Durant's music to always eating off the fine china i.e. it feels classy, when you feel like doing classy. Durant herself once wryly described her music as 'spare, gospel-tinged and redolent of old parlours.' The parlour formalities aside…much like Joanna Newsom, Durant's soprano tends to flutter at the top end of her range, but she usually feels more grounded both in her delivery, and in her subject matter. Overall, the same critic concluded, Durant sounds like Nanci Griffith or Sandy Denny singing a Joanna Newsom song. High praise anyway, on all counts. Durant was born and raised in New Orleans, worked for a decade in New York City, and is now based in Topanga Canyon. The influences of geography aside, the lyrical concerns, bookish conceits and complex structures of these piano-based songs – many of which include a trademark change of rhythm, midstream – are entirely her own. 'Islands 'for instance, is about an escape – to an idealised paradise of 'palms ad driftwood, like Hemingway said' – that gets interrupted by a call from a partner at home who had encouraged her to go and have a good time, but who is now needily on the phone, killing whatever tentative buzz might have been in the offing. The song shifts between the justifications of starting afresh – 'You must have known/that your pleasure was gone/You let me go/you must have known' – and the responsibilities still being felt, even for a dying relationship. The song ends with the singer at the crossroads, still undecided: Any New Orleans native who call a song 'Rising Sun' and who begins each chorus with the line ' There is a house in New Orleans' is aware of the weight of tradition. A word here for producer Kyp Malone (from the group TV On The Radio) who has broadened the palette of Durant's songs with added instrumentation, but couched it in a deft, dry production that never overwhelms the main event. I love the humour and directness in the opening lines of this track: Hello wind, haven't seen you in years Have you been out on the plain with the others? I've been here, learning some rituals Like how to truly love another… To be alone feels like a life of crime But to fear the unknown is an uglier rhyme… Finally…here's a typically intricate single from Durant's new album, Firetrail :
Scoop
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
On Sacrificing Worker Rights On The Altar Of Commerce
In the interests of efficiency, maybe Brooke van Velden should just outsource her Workplace Relations and Safety Ministry to Business NZ and be done with it. Because (obviously) corporate wishes are her command. Within a short time in the job, van Velden has trashed a decade of pay equity work, given the 90 day fire-at-will power back to employers, reduced worker rights to bargain collectively, and signalled her intention to reduce sick pay entitlements for part-time workers. Despite New Zealand's horrendous record of workplace deaths, injuries and illness, van Velden plans to reduce Worksafe's enforcement role and revert to the employer-written, voluntary codes of health and safety that New Zealand experimented with in the 1990s, and which directly contributed to the Pike River tragedy. In the process, she plans to reduce the safety requirements placed on employers and company directors - while at the same time, making workers more responsible for dealing with unsafe conditions in the workplace. It goes on. As promised, van Velden is also amending current employment law in ways that will make gig economy workers unable to argue in court that their actual working conditions entitle them to the same rights as employees. In the sane legislative package, she will also restrict access to personal grievance processes. In the light of all this, media reports that 'business leaders are backing [these]changes' will come as a surprise only to people unaware that the Pope is a Catholic. The certainties of injustice By virtually privatising her portfolio, van Velden is giving up any pretence of pursuing a fair and equal balance in the workplace, between the rights of employers and the rights of workers. As Dennis Maga of the Workers First Union says, these law changes (to do with contractor/employee status) are being pushed through Parliament in order to pre-empt the Supreme Court hearing next month of an appeal against a ruling by the Employment Court that four Uber drivers were employees, not contractors. According to Maga, the government 'has no regard for evidence, no time for judicial process.' Moreover: 'Instead of strengthening our protection against exploitation, Brooke van Velden is laying out the red carpet for employers like Uber to come into New Zealand and take advantage of cheap labour with next to no rights, and no ability to challenge their employment status.' Shrinking Sick Leave On the campaign trail back in August 2023, National had promised that it would not reduce the number of sick days employees receive. Luxon said he wouldn't get rid of the 10 days of sick leave which was increased from five by Labour in 2021. "It is what it is now and it's passed and we won't be changing it now," Luxon told reporters. What van Velden is working on – with National's support - is a reduction in sick leave entitlements, by shifting to a so called 'pro rata' system whereby an entitlement to sick leave accrues less readily over time. Currently, all workers – full-time, part-time or casual – are entitled to 10 days of sick leave if they have been with their employer continuously for six months, and have worked an average 10 hours a week, and at least one hour in every week, or 40 hours in every month. van Velden clearly intends to introduce a pro rate system in which sick leave entitlements in future will differ more sharply between full time and part time workers. As more and more work gets casualised, employers who rely on casual labour have an obvious interest in seeing a reduction in worker entitlements. How many workers stand to be affected? As of the first quarter of this year, there were 584,000 part time workers in this country and nearly 70% of them – 404,000 in all –were women. As with the coalition government's demolition of pay equity, any shift to a tougher pro rate system for part-time workers will disproportionately affect women. At this point, much will depend on how van Velden calculates her 'pro-rata' system – will sick leave accrue in proportion to how many hours are worked per week, or how many days of the week are worked? Incredibly, van Velden could not/would not comment to RNZ's Lisa Owen on which measure she has in mind, or even – on principle - which measure would be more fair to the employees affected. For many workers, the measure chosen could significantly affect how their sick leave accrues. A Owen pointed out, some people – e.g. in the health system – work 40 hours, but this can be compressed into four day shifts. Alternatively, other workers may work several short shifts, spread out over an entire week. So which pro rata measure is it to be - hours, or days per week ? van Velden isn't saying, at least not until Cabinet has signed off, and it has become a fait accompli. Even more incredibly, the RNZ interview revealed that van Velden is pursuing a 'solution' – ie. reduced access by part-time workers to sick leave - before gathering any evidence that a problem actually exists. After all, sick leave entitlements are only a cost burden to employers if and when that sick leave gets taken – and, Owen asked, has van Velden got any evidence that the part-time workers in this country are taking disproportionate amounts of sick leave? No, van Velden indicated. Finally, Owen asked again about the likely impact on women workers given their dual roles in the paid work force, and as the main child carers at home. Many are single parents, or have partners also working shifts in order to make ends meet. So when school kids get sick, and their mothers'sick leave entitlements have been reduced, Own asked, what will happen? van Velden's reply could hardly have been more utopian: She dismissed concerns that changing the sick leave entitlements would disproportionately affect women, saying 'if we truly care about gender equality, we shouldn't have this assumption that women are the ones in a relationship taking time off to look after their children when they're sick'. Yep, when the reality faced by low income women is in conflict with an ideological principle that serves the interests of commerce, you can always rely on the ACT Party to defend the principle, no matter how unjust its outcomes may be. Parlour music for moderns Some music critic once likened the effect of listening to a lot of Erin Durant's music to always eating off the fine china i.e. it feels classy, when you feel like doing classy. Durant herself once wryly described her music as 'spare, gospel-tinged and redolent of old parlours.' The parlour formalities like Joanna Newsom, Durant's soprano tends to flutter at the top end of her range, but she usually feels more grounded both in her delivery, and in her subject matter. Overall, the same critic concluded, Durant sounds like Nanci Griffith or Sandy Denny singing a Joanna Newsom song. High praise anyway, on all counts. Durant was born and raised in New Orleans, worked for a decade in New York City, and is now based in Topanga Canyon. The influences of geography aside, the lyrical concerns, bookish conceits and complex structures of these piano-based songs – many of which include a trademark change of rhythm, midstream – are entirely her own. 'Islands 'for instance, is about an escape - to an idealised paradise of 'palms ad driftwood, like Hemingway said' - that gets interrupted by a call from a partner at home who had encouraged her to go and have a good time, but who is now needily on the phone, killing whatever tentative buzz might have been in the offing. The song shifts between the justifications of starting afresh – 'You must have known/that your pleasure was gone/You let me go/you must have known' - and the responsibilities still being felt, even for a dying relationship. The song ends with the singer at the crossroads, still undecided: Any New Orleans native who call a song 'Rising Sun' and who begins each chorus with the line ' There is a house in New Orleans' is aware of the weight of tradition. A word here for producer Kyp Malone (from the group TV On The Radio) who has broadened the palette of Durant's songs with added instrumentation, but couched it in a deft, dry production that never overwhelms the main event. I love the humour and directness in the opening lines of this track: Hello wind, haven't seen you in years Have you been out on the plain with the others? I've been here, learning some rituals Like how to truly love another... To be alone feels like a life of crime But to fear the unknown is an uglier rhyme... a typically intricate single from Durant's new album, Firetrail :
