So are young people really
being exploited in New Zealand? Well some would argue not only
is it happening here but if you care to look it's pretty much
on your doorstep. Your papers are being delivered for
peanuts. Definitely hurts my shoulder a lot. You're getting
brochures for mega sales on the cheap. Lots in the letter box
for very little in 13 year old Quint's pocket. A little bit of
a rip off in my opinion. $2 to $4 per hour. Uh I think that's
pretty lousy. You're not exaggerating. It really is
about two to four bucks an hour? I know how much time it
takes. It's today's payment is $13 or $14 for three hours so
that's less than $4 an hour. Paper rounds run in the Charman
family. I think the sooner they learn how to earn money the
better. And Alan was happy for Quint to take one on because 20 years
ago it worked well for Quint's much older brother Dane. This
is Dane caught on camera back in two thousand and one. So
quite an age difference between your boys? Yes. Yeah different
mum. And a different experience. Now according to
dad's records back in 2001 Dane was being
paid $8 to deliver about 87 papers. Move on to 2022 and
Quint is getting paid just over $8 to deliver up to 150 papers. And
that's why we see all the time when kids try this, and usually
high school kids try it, that they only last a matter of
weeks before they realize that hey this is crazy. To make some
decent coin Quint's taken on two paper rounds and a brochure drop. All
for the same company - Reach. While it's low for the amount
of work. The thing is it is money. It is money, but it's
only possible because good old mum and dad get on board. We
pretty much always give Quint a bit of a helping hand because he he
wouldn't have time to do it. It's just not physically
possible. Quint's saving for his own gaming computer. An
Xbox One S and there's always another Hot Wheels car he'd
love for his collection, so for Quint the pay is nice, while for
others it can be necessary. I know a family in Papatoetoe
where a daughter the same age as Quint is working for $2 or
$3 an hour to help put food on the table. With communities doing it
tough there are plenty of takers for jobs with minimal
pay. 30% of Māori people are earning under $24,000 a year
and so if your babies can add to the pool by putting
pamphlets out etcetera etcetera and get a couple bucks for it
it's better than sitting at home doing nothing. That is
exploitation. So where do you think you could put pressure on
to make a change? Well whoever is paying that firm to deliver
those brochures. Get into them. Uh get into their boards. Uh
get into their shareholders and just say you know you wouldn't
have this inflicted on your children. So don't inflict it
on my community. Chemist Warehouse has been the biggest
one by a long way in Auckland City Council, Hunting &
Fishing, Briscoes. So how do they justify using this
service? Auckland Council says we use Reach as it offers the
only large volume unaddressed mail distribution network in
Auckland. However we like to act fairly and ethically so
we'll seek clarification from Reach about the pay and
conditions. Briscoes CEO says whilst we have not been the
decision maker in this process we can perhaps influence some
decisions around the future distribution of our catalogs. I
will give a commitment to raise the issues highlighted. Hunting
& Fishing gave no response and Chemist Warehouse had
nothing to say either. The thing is, young people do get
more pay for other work. A call out to viewers showed
fourteen-year-old George makes $21 an hour at
his local store. Sean who's 15 does relief share milking for
25 bucks an hour. Then, there's packaging online orders for $20
an hour and crate washing for 22 bucks an hour. Meaning,
paper deliverers are really getting a raw deal. Like Quint,
many are contractors paid per item delivered. Fair Go first
address this industry in 2014. With Miro complaining
about a rate of $3.80 per round, or around $2.50 an hour
before tax. Which we put to the then children's commissioner.
That if children are working as an employee they should be paid
a fair wage. $2.50? Is that a fair wage? No. Miro resigned.
Nothing changed. Then in 2017 we took up the baton for Gemma.
She was told her six hour paper run should take an hour and a
half. But even with the fastest man in New Zealand holding the
bags. Oh my god. It was impossible to achieve. Gemma
resigned too and here we are in 2022. Reach is
still the leading distributor. So they're still vocal trying
to drop up more kids for deliveries. Reach wants you to
deliver catalogs to local letter boxes twice a week. When
we started working with you on this we suggested you gave
Reach NZ a call. What did they say? The CEO said that
they had it under review and he would let me know within 14
days, which coincidentally was up today and I haven't heard
from him. We got in touch Reach too it passed this on to
its industry body. The entire distribution network is being
reviewed to offer a consistent nationwide standard for rates
and delivery lengths. Supporting this is a new distribution
standards board. A port of call for complaints or compliments.
But stop press the government's about to deliver its own paper
on the issue. Minister Wood intends to pass a bill this
term that will clarify the boundary between genuine
commercial contracting and employment giving workers
improved rights and working conditions. Alan believes the
remedy is simple. I think the answer is that they should pay
more - even 50% more would be you know that that you're then
making it $5 or $6 an hour. That that's not unreasonable
for a young kid but $2 or $3 is.