Media release: Council of Trade Unions

Government jobs strategy needed

Following on from two large-scale redundancies announced in the past two weeks, new analysis out today from the Reserve Bank shows increased migration is contributing to the reason so many people are out of work.

The Council of Trade Unions says that the government needs to have a better handle on job creation and job transition. Hundreds of people at NZ Post and Fisher and Paykel have had their livelihoods taken away. What is the government doing to ensure these working people have good, well paid work to move into?

“We think there is plenty more the government can be doing to support jobs in New Zealand,” CTU secretary Sam Huggard said.

“One very obvious example is to use the significant power of government procurement to support local work. But instead of putting local working people and industries first, the Government has given up some of its ability to support local by agreeing to backward procurement rules in the WTO and through the TPPA,

“Not only is high migration contributing to more people out of work, it is also pulling wages down. This has been well accepted fact and the government has conceded this too,

Huggard said the recent law changes outlaw zero hours contracts will better protect working people from the job insecurity that these sorts of agreements posed. “But the government needs to go further and make sure the economy is working for everyone including creating enough jobs to match the increase in the working age population,” Huggard said.

ENDS

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