By: Nicola Owen and Melissa Peterson
Facebook: Sunday, 26 May 2024
There was a great disability rights protest in Auckland today despite the rain. Photos show a crowd of around 100 people with union flags and protest signs.
Paul Brown from Blind Citizens and DPACA at the Auckland protest on Sunday 26th May.
Danni from PSA at the Auckland protest on Sunday 26th.
Last Updated 28/05/2024
RESOURCES
Friday, 19 May 2023, 2:57 pm
Press Release: PSA
The PSA’s Deaf and Disabled Network is today celebrating the end to one form of discrimination of disabled people in the workplace following Budget 2023.
The Minimum Wage Exemption is being axed and replaced with a wage supplement. Currently disabled people can be paid as little as $2 an hour. Ensuring that disabled people have the same access to the minimum wage protection as others eliminates a form of legalised discrimination and puts more money in the pockets of disabled people.
"The current system legalises discrimination against disabled workers, tells disabled people they are worth less than other workers, and contributes to high rates of poverty for disabled people," said Glenn Walker, co-convener of the PSA Deaf and Disabled Network.
"Ending the exemption ensures that disabled people have access to work and also the rights of every other worker."
Workplace discrimination and lack of access to work are a significant contributor to high rates of poverty among disabled people. Working aged disabled people have an average income of $662 a week compared to $1,125 for non-disabled people.
Thes announcement impacts 800 workers who will have their wages lifted to the minimum wage and follows decades of advocacy by disabled workers, the union movement, and disabled people’s organisations.
Paul Brown, a founding member of the Deaf and Disabled Network, celebrated the achievement.
"One of our goals when we set up the Deaf and Disabled Network was to end the Minimum Wage Exemption Scheme. Advocacy’s a long game sometimes. And sometimes we don’t win, but when we don’t fight, we never win!"
Last Updated 24/05/2024
RESOURCES
By: Jemima Huston, Reporter
@jemimahuston jemima.huston@rnz.co.nz
RNZ: 9:18 pm on 29 April 2024
Ministry of Disabled People employees were promised a permanent role, but were told to start packing three weeks before their fixed term contract finished, says a former employee.
The Ministry - also known as Whaikaha - told RNZ it had no plans for redundancies as part of the government's cost-saving requirements.
But the employee said they started in a fixed-term role last year and they were promised a permanent contract as soon as the paperwork was filled out.
"This position was initially planned to be a permanent position, so I really wasn't expecting not to be extended or not to be made permanent.
"So I think what our ministry is doing is they're just sort of quietly not extending all the fixed-termers and that way they can say: 'Oh, we're not disestablishing roles'. But they actually are because they're not replacing us."
They said it was a shock to be told there would be no extension, just three weeks out from the end of the fixed-term contract.
"I was getting a little bit worried, because I wasn't hearing anything about being made permanent or being extended. And so yeah, about maybe three and a half weeks before the end of the fixed-term, they said: 'Oh, we're actually not extending you'."
The worker said the job market was dire and they had been forced to lower their salary expectation.
"I have a mortgage to pay, so I'm obviously quite stressed about finances. I have found that there's not that many jobs out there. I've applied for so, so many, and I've gotten a lot of rejections."
Public Service Association assistant secretary Fleur Fitzsimmons said the cuts to fixed term staff showed there were more job losses in the public sector than was being reported.
She said workers that were told they would be made permanent may well be able to argue that the promise stood.
"In New Zealand, an employer must have genuine reasons based on reasonable grounds to make someone fixed term.
"If workers have been told that they'll be made permanent, they can rely on that and elect to be treated permanent."
Fitzsimmons said any public servants who had been promised permanent roles or have had changes made to their fixed term contract should contact the PSA.
"In many cases it may be that these fixed terms are not genuine and that these people do have grounds for personal grievance, and I'd strongly encourage them to get in touch with the union so we can provide representation and support."
The Ministry of Disabled People said it employed 37 fixed-term, 211 permanent, and 6 secondee staff as of 20 April.
Deputy chief executive of corporate services Hayley Evans said the number of fixed term employees will gradually get smaller over time.
"Fixed term or temporary appointments are made for reasons that are specific to the work they are hired to do. Given the phase of establishment that Whaikaha is in, we expect to gradually reduce our reliance on temporary staffing arrangements."
Evans said there were still no plans for redundancies at Whaikaha because it was already a small ministry.
She said in response to the government's savings targets the ministry had not recruited for some unfilled roles.
Last Updated 30/04/2024
RESOURCES
PSA
20 March 2024
It’s time for disability support to be well and reliably resourced.
We call on Penny Simmonds, the Minister for Disability Issues, to bridge the funding gaps in the Budget in May.
