IRD Staff Tell Bosses – It’s Your Job To Be Fair

“IRD staff who are NUPE members have rejected a pay offer from their employer as unfair to those on low pay and say it will upset the team approach needed by the IRD,” said Martin Cooney, Organiser of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE). NUPE is one of three Unions representing IRD staff nationally.

“Team Leaders are to receive a pay rise of 8.8% from 1 April 2004 while their team members mostly receive 1.2%,” said Martin Cooney. “This reinforces a rich get richer approach to pay since 1998. Since that time, the Team Leaders have had increases of 22.1% or more. Most Officers (basic IRD workers) have received round 4.1%.”

“Over that time average rises for Kiwis on Collective Agreements have been 17.5%. (See table) We are not opposed to the rises for Team Leaders – just that they should apply to all IRD workers. Drop in team morale and slower service to the public are likely outcomes in dealing with the 2004 tax year,” said Martin Cooney.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>