Housing New Zealand staff escalate industrial action

Public Service Association (PSA) members at the Housing New Zealand Corporation (HNZC) have been taking part in industrial action for a month – now they’re taking their demand for a fair deal to the street.

Staff at over 40 centres around the country will hold a two hour stoppage from 12-2pm on Thursday 29th July. Rallies will be held during the stoppage at four sites in Auckland and one in Wellington outside Housing New Zealand’s National Office on Grey Street.

“This stoppage follows nearly a year of bargaining with the Corporation to negotiate fair pay and employment conditions,” says PSA National Secretary Richard Wagstaff.

“We want fair rates of pay; rates that are negotiated not dictated, agreed hours of work and a fair process when jobs are cut or changed. None of this is unreasonable in fact they are modest claims for conditions that are fairly standard in most organisations.

“We want Housing New Zealand to get its house in order and fix what needs fixing now,” says Richard Wagstaff.

“Workloads at Housing New Zealand are out of control and staff are gifting thousands of hours in labour as they try to cope with the demands of doing more with less.

“Housing New Zealand now plans to cut its maintenance budget by a whopping 21 per cent. The impact of that will be a lot of disgruntled tenants and as always it will be Housing New Zealand employees who bear the brunt of public anger over cuts to services,” says Richard Wagstaff.

Auckland and Wellington pickets:

Mt Roskill: 989 Dominion Road Mt Roskill

New Lynn: 26 Delta Ave, New Lynn, Waitakere

Glen Innes: 244 Apriana Ave Glen Innes Auckland

National Office Auckland: AMI Building, Level 3, 15 Osterley Way, Manukau City

National Office Wellington: Harcourts Building, 28 Grey St, Wellington

ENDS

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