Unionist bars up over some local hospo businesses’ treatment of staff
Many Queenstown hospo employers aren’t playing by the book — and hospo staff deserve penalty rates for working anti-social hours.
So says local-based Unite union organiser Simon Edmunds, commenting on the Hospitality Fair Pay Agreement (HFPA) being hammered out by unions, employers and others in coming months, after new law was passed last year.
A fortnight ago, employers told Mountain Scene almost all hospo staff are paid well above the minimum wage, with many, even in menial jobs, on at least the median rate of $29 an hour.
Those employers also said paying penalty rates — typically, time-and-a-half — for weekend or after-midnight work, could see businesses reducing opening hours or imposing surcharges on customers, as many already do on public holidays.
Edmunds has now come forward to completely reject those arguments.
He’s currently distributing info on the HFPA to all local hospo businesses, after which he’ll be seeking their employees’ details, ahead of the negotiations.
Edmunds accepts many hospo employers pay and treat their staff well.
However, ‘‘there are certainly workers in hospo in Queenstown being paid minimum wage or only slightly above minimum wage’’.
They’re often working holiday visa-holders who only know what the minimum wage is, ‘‘and nothing more in terms of what employment rights they have’’.
Then there are better-paid accredited employer work visa-holders who, if they’re in dispute with their employer, can’t easily change jobs — and are even more vulnerable if their boss also houses them.
‘Hospo workers should also share lifestyle’ – unionist
On Monday, Edmunds says he spoke to a bar owner who said his workers ‘‘chose to come here for a ski holiday, why should I pay above minimum wage?’’
On the vexed question of penalty rates, he stresses nothing’s set in stone, though his union’s put the issue on the negotiating table.
‘‘What local workers are saying is, ‘oh, about time we got in line with countries like Australia and so many in Europe where this is common’.
‘‘And I’m old enough to remember when we used to have penalty rates in New Zealand, as well, and people would actually fight [to work] those shifts.’’
Edmunds accepts night and weekend shifts suit backpackers here for the ski season, for example.
‘‘But for an awful lot of workers in Queenstown, they’re not that kind of worker, they’re workers with children, with partners, with life commitments that don’t necessarily fit in with being on-call for those kinds of anti-social shifts.’’
Further, he argues nighttime trade’s the most profitable for many hospo businesses — ‘‘expecting their workers to basically have the same rate despite them making much more profit, that’s ringing alarm bells for unions’’.
Despite pay issues being important, Edmunds says work conditions, like meal breaks, are a greater focus for the HFPA.
‘‘It’s very widespread that people are not getting the breaks they’re entitled to, and this is particularly pernicious in hotels and fast food.
‘‘Although I do hear stories of cafes and bars not giving the breaks when they’re needed because when they get busy the pressure goes on to keep open and make money.
‘‘And when you compound that with short-staffing issues, owners and managers are putting incredible pressure on the staff they do have.’’
He also thinks it’s reasonable for hospo owners engaged in food service to provide free staff meals.
Edmunds claims he’s not ‘‘targeting’’ employers.
‘‘What we’re interested in is improving that sector because in a city where there’s such extremes of wealth, to have fulltime workers sleeping in their cars or not getting their basic legal requirements, at work, is just unacceptable.
‘‘There needs to be a situation in Queenstown where the people who produce the labour get to share in the lifestyle, get to be active participants in their own communities.’’
Edmunds accepts the HFPA would be dead in the water if the Labour government’s tossed out in October’s election,
‘‘It would be an awful lot of work from us, down the drain, but that doesn’t mean this chance isn’t worth pursuing, because this is potentially the biggest change for wages and conditions for those in this very vulnerable industry since the early ’90s.’’
