The Green Party is supporting Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) staff who are taking industrial action today.
“It’s no wonder the Minister of MBIE is failing in his goal to raise wages, productivity, and exports when the people in MBIE,who are supposed to be making it happen, are themselves overworked, underpaid, and insecure,” said Green Party industrial relations spokesperson Denise Roche.
“There is something sick about the culture of a Ministry that can waste $140,000 on a TV screen, $67,000 on a sign, and $560,000 on a website that isn’t even very good, but sees its own staff having to go on strike to get fair pay and conditions.
“Steven Joyce’s oversight of his Ministry is as bad as his Government’s oversight of New Zealand’s economy. The National Government doesn’t care that people need work that pays them a fair enough wage so they can live a good life and provide for their families.
“I’m particularly concerned that MBIE is refusing to agree to a new collective agreement that will ensure all staff are paid the same rates for similar work across the country, that it is attempting to remove staff from collective agreement coverage, and that the only pay increases on offer to staff are performance based.
“That is not the way any employer, let alone a public service employer, should treat its staff," Ms Roche said.
