Fair Pay, Not Massages, Wanted For Ird Staff

“Inland Revenue Department are declining to pay for massages for staff who volunteer to do work outside their normal job this year and will only offer them from July if peak pressure increases,” said Martin Cooney, Organiser of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE). NUPE members have been on strike since 4 May by refusing to undertake work outside their job descriptions

“IRD in Christchurch has decided that massages for staff will not be available in May and June because the assistance required in 2004 was significantly less than in 2003. We understand that they plan to review the offer of massages once the numbers of staff required for July and August is known,” said Martin Cooney. “Instead of taking on enough workers or offering to properly pay staff who volunteer to undertake overload duties on phones, IRD in previous years has provided a masseuse for an at work massage,” said Martin Cooney. “This does at least recognize the extra stress that the IRD process of ‘army volunteers’ places on staff but this is not the best way to deal with the issue.”

“IRD should be consulting Unions with proposals for change to work where they are looking at incentives such as massages, rather than simply offering or taking away massages depending on the number of volunteers they get.”

“Additionally, the IRD should pay its officers the same increases as its Team Leaders (8.8%), and not deal in these grace and favour incentives,” said Martin Cooney. “Staff want fair pay not shoulder rubs.”

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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>>