Zealand's health sector announced today, it will be delivering for New
Zealand. I commend the bill to the
House. I call Poto Williams. Tena
koe Mr Speaker. It is a special
day. I want to
I want to acknowledge Kristine Bartlett, the servos, the PSA,
the
Congratulations.
They so much for all the hardwork that you have done to bring this
bill to the House, to bring this to
a conclusion. Mr Speaker, I have one word for the
Government and its role
in this and that
Government and its role in this and Government
Government and its role in this and
not about your hardwork. This hardwork belongs to those workers
who work very hard every single
day caring for our elderly and
our most vulnerable and to the unions
that support them, who have
fought for them long and
hard. Why I say that, Mr Speaker,
is because on reviewing the regulatory
impact statement today, this afternoon, I am reminded of
a couple of things. The first thing I am
reminded of is, actually, one
of the first principles of pay equity, is
about
first principles of pay equity, is
predominantly performed by women, care and support
workers are less than they would be to a man
performing work involving
similar skills, responsibilities, conditions
and degrees of effort.
Where in this discussion is the
issue we have wanted resolved. Until we can decide on a
comparator, not within the same sector but outside
of the sector, we are going
to continue to have
these arguments going down the line. This Government
has been kicking and screaming
not only about this
has been kicking and screaming not only about this piece
of legislation but about the travel
time between work but about the
sleepover conditions, which have been
and by the workers and their union. So I say
years it took of discussion behind the scenes because they couldn't not
stomach what the
court would eventually
stomach what the court would stomach
stomach what the court would eventually settle. I go back to the
Regulatory Impact Statement,
Mr Speaker.
Regulatory Impact Statement, Mr Speaker. When we look at,
Regulatory Impact Statement, Mr
determines pay rate for care and support
determines pay rate for care and
options, the resulting change in pay rates to address pay equity of
these workers, one of the key
outcomes sought to achieve a equitable
pay structure and a
So the Government new what the costs would be. If
they were actually going to put in place what actually
is deserved by the
workers in this country, by the workers who work
in the care and
support industry. They
the care and support industry. the
They know. The only information
that we actually get on pay rates
is, actually, the schedule that appears
in the legislation. And here
it is. The schedule that was fought
for and won by our workers. That's the only
information we have. All the
rest of the information has been redacted.
However,
However, Mr Speaker, I do want to be constructive because I am on the
select committee, so there are
four pieces of this legislation, four
sections, that I want for
us to examine. I have had a chance to have
a look at the legislation. There
are four sections that I
think require further examination.
The
The first one is about weekend and penalty rates
The first one is about weekend and
no longer have a penalty rate as a percentage of an hourly rate.
What will happen for some workers is that
the penal rate
will be the dollar value as it occurs in the current
agreement
agreement before the new legislation is put in place. So for
somebody, for example, who is
currently on
the new pay rates and they get an increase
the new pay rates and they get an
see, if we can actually examine the fairness of that
Speaker. The other thing I think we need
to look at is section 7, which looks
at
and bars potential future claims'. I think we should examine whether
this is actually fair. Because, there
may be in future negotiations
something that comes up that we
have not anticipated and this section
extinguishes the right to any future
claims under that.
Section
claims under that.
agreements that might have been made and previous agreements. So any
might have potentially have transferred over into
new agreements are now also not going to be
enforced. There may have been some
conditions grant grandparented
enforced. There may have been some
grandparented over in the past and they're no longer going to be
available for workers. I
think we need to look at that. The last thing
is continuous
is continuous employment, because continuous employment in this
legislation appears to be only with
the same employer or when that staff
member transfers to a new
employer who I presume has purchased that
business. So the potential for that,
Mr Speaker, is I guess if
you change employers, you
employers, you could be working in the industry for several
years or several decades and still only
achieve the first
two pay rates on the scale. So I think, as a select
committee, we have the
opportunity to examine that. In a truncated
period, yes, it is, but I
think we will be able to tease out
and ensure we get those clauses right in the
legislation. In the few minutes I have
left, Mr Speaker, I want to tell a story
about a caregiver that I
knew because I used to wo, in this area
myself a
because I used to wo, in this area
a few years ago. It was a caregiver in a care facility where they
had a dementia unit where many of the
clients has Alzheimer's. This
staff member turned up for work, walked
through the door, she still had
her handback wrapped and her
wrapped around her arm as she walked into work and she saw a
client of hers walking towards her, and
she walked up to that lady, held
her hands between hers, held them
and looked into her eyes for
a good couple of minutes and
it was a lovely exchange because it showed
how much she cared for that person.
Afterwards, after she put her
bag down, got herself ready for the day,
I asked her why she did that. She
said to me that lot of people
in our rest homes and in our
care facilities don't often have
family visit. This particular lady probably
wouldn't remember her tomorrow
but she felt like she had to
provide some care and
love to her. Now, I think that story
of that woman says exactly what we want to
acknowledge and support and
That what they do every single day is provide a little bit of love, and
a lot of care to people
who, ordinarily, otherwise, might
not get it. I think every member in this
House, when we're a little bit older
and we might be dribbling into
our soup, we would all want care
workers like that woman, who take the time
to share a little bit of love
their clients. Mr Speaker, today is about unions.
This
This is
This is what good, strong unions can achieve. Unionisation is
about supporting our
supporting our best workers, supporting those who do the
difficult jobs, who actually
deserve to be paid the most. This is also
about women. It's, for me, really
important to acknowledge this is
about Pacific women, Pacific women
who have worked for many years in
this industry and, today, they
get a little bit more of what they deserve
which is going some way to getting a
living wage, a decent wage.
So, Mr Speaker, I am really proud to
support this bill. I
really hope that in the future, the Government
will really acknowledge that
what they have done is they have
perhaps negotiated away some of those right
this industry do deserve but in the interests of their sector have
decided to forego. Mr Speaker, we
support those workers we support the
unions. Thank you very
much. Members the debate has
concluded. The question is that the most be
agreed to. Those of that
opinion will say Aye. To the contrary, no. The
Ayes
I just ask those in the gallery just to be quiet while we
do the votings. The question is that the Care and
Support Workers (Pay Equity)
Settlement Bill be considered by
the Health Committee. Those of that
opinion will say Aye. Aye. To
the contrary, no. The Ayes have it. The
Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman. Mr Speaker,
I am move that the Care and
Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Bill
be reported to the House by 6
June 2017. And that the
committee have authority to meet at any
time while the House is sitting, except
during Oral Questions, during any
evening on a day on which there
has been a sitting of the House, and
on a Friday in a week in which there