New employment "laws"

**lb99** · 1st April 2009, 17:55

whats the guts with the new employment laws, my wife just had her 5 hour shift reduced by half an hour because they say she HAS to have a ten minute paid and a 30 min unpaid break, before it was 15 min paid at lunch which was heaps.

on top of that, yesterday she was earning .25 above minimum, today shes at minimum wage again, it took her 2 years to get above that "minimum wage" feeling, and on top of that she now loses half a days pay every week.

I think her work just found a new way to screw the workers

cunts.....

**Motu** · 1st April 2009, 18:50

Bring back Unions!

It was always a paid 10 min break every 2 hrs and unpaid 1/2hr lunch when the Unions were in charge of this country.Cripple the whole country with a general strike if a company tried to not give you a break.One place I worked at we shut the place down for a week over a pair of boots - no Fruju or frozen peas for you as a bit of a clue of who it was.

**cowpoos** · 1st April 2009, 19:17

Originally Posted by Motu

Bring back Unions!

Nah...over protection of usless workers at the expense of normal to excellent ones is not what this country needs.

**Ixion** · 1st April 2009, 19:19

That's how it all begun. A strike about a lunch break . Blackball, 1908.

"While cowards flinch and traitors sneer"
"We'll keep the red flag flying here"

**Oakie** · 1st April 2009, 19:29

One of the Labour government's final acts was to pass this piece of legislation which overrode existing break conditions and said "this is what every workplace in the country shall do. No exceptions. One size fits all".
It will be repealed or at least softened. It has to be when you consider just my workplace.
We have individual workers looking after intellectually disabled adults in. Normally 1 worker to a house of about 4 adults although we also have 3 positions where we have one worker with 1 'high needs' person. There is no way we can just have a break and leave these guys on their own for half an hour (in the recent past, 20 minutes has proven fatal). Our option by complying with the letter of the law is to get an employee to come in for a couple of 10 minute shifts and a half hour shift. Not really a practical solution. The present reality for our employees is that they do their 5 1/2 to 7 1/2 hour shifts and are paid right through. They have a meal with the residents and are able to kick back and relax when they gat the chance as long as they keep an eye on the guys. I actually watched two of our employees watching our guys playing cricket in the sun for two hours last Friday. Not exactly hard work but it's swings and roundabouts so we don't mind when it works out well for our guys like that and they don't complain when things are full on.
You just can't legislate in this way for organisations like ours when taking a break may be fatal. (Oh, unless they want to increase our funding)
Anyone in a sole charge situation will strike the same problem:
Sole charge child care facility,
Single teacher school,
Sole pharmacist (shop must shut if pharmacist is not in attendance)
etc.

And yes, as pointed out initially, having breaks will cost our employees half an hour wages a day, two hours a week ... about $1600 a year.

**cowboyz** · 1st April 2009, 19:59

well it could be argued that its only illegal if someone complains.

I, for one, are happy about the changes. I now get an extra break in my day that I didnt have before and since they outlawed me smoking while mowing I am happy to stop mid arvo for a smoke rather than working all afternoon.

**mangell6** · 1st April 2009, 20:19

Originally Posted by Ixion

That's how it all begun. A strike about a lunch break . Blackball, 1908.

"While cowards flinch and traitors sneer"
"We'll keep the red flag flying here"

All on displayed in the "(Formally) The Blackball Hilton"

**Lias** · 1st April 2009, 22:17

Originally Posted by Ixion

That's how it all begun. A strike about a lunch break . Blackball, 1908.

"While cowards flinch and traitors sneer"
"We'll keep the red flag flying here"

Fucking red scum, should have machined gunned the lot of them.

**Conquiztador** · 1st April 2009, 22:52

Yep. So many changes suddenly. New tax categories, changes in Kiwi Saver, the mentioned break rule, minimum wage etc. Tricky for most businesses to comply with all that. And most of it means more costs. The changes to the Payroll is a cost, the breaks will cost, the minimum wage...

There will be companies/organisations that can not cope with all this.

As mentioned there has to be a softening of many of them.

**McJim** · 1st April 2009, 23:17

Originally Posted by lb99

whats the guts with the new employment laws, my wife just had her 5 hour shift reduced by half an hour because they say she HAS to have a ten minute paid and a 30 min unpaid break, before it was 15 min paid at lunch which was heaps.

on top of that, yesterday she was earning .25 above minimum, today shes at minimum wage again, it took her 2 years to get above that "minimum wage" feeling, and on top of that she now loses half a days pay every week.

I think her work just found a new way to screw the workers

cunts.....

Yeah fuckem - they should all pay a decent wage and then go bust so EVERYONE can lose their jobs fair and square like!

**cowboyz** · 2nd April 2009, 05:53

seriously. We are not surposed to be a third world country.

All the changes are minor and shouldnt be hard to comply with. The breaks coming into law are only what has been common practice for most reasonable employers for some time and min wage is really minimum.

**McDuck** · 2nd April 2009, 06:07

As a foreman brakes mean fuck all. Workers cant work un supervised and there are tasks that cant be done when the workers are withen ear distance.

This means that while my workers have a 15m brake i would be lucky to get 5, dosnt bother me to much as long as i get a drink and a snack...

**marty** · 2nd April 2009, 07:00

I do a 10.5 hr night shift. still get paid for all breaks. not much point getting a 30 min unpaid break at 0100am

**MSTRS:Me** · 2nd April 2009, 08:26

I employ me.
'me': The boss is a cunt, so I'm going to work to rule. That'll learn 'im.
'I': And as far as I'm concerned, this $12.50/hr shit stinks...the lazy shit isn't worth that much. Fuck, I'm going to have to take a drop in salary just to pay him that. Or dream up some excuse to fire his arse. Then I'll do the work.