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Housing New Zealand disappointed at industrial action
29 July 2010
Housing New Zealand is disappointed the Public Service Association (PSA) is continuing with industrial action against the Corporation.
“PSA members make up only 40% of the Corporation’s staff but industrial action is disruptive to our services to New Zealanders,” said Housing New Zealand general manager Organisation Development and Performance Philippa Jones.
“Housing New Zealand has been bargaining with the PSA since September last year. We have made an affordable and fair offer to our staff who are union members. That offer is appropriate to the economic conditions,” Ms Jones said.
“Like most large organisations, Housing New Zealand believes in providing pay rises anchored to performance. We do not agree with providing automatic, across the board increases like those proposed by the PSA.
“Housing New Zealand’s staff are well paid. Our salaries are ahead of the public sector by an average of 3 percent because the Corporation benchmarks against pay rates in both the public and private markets,” Ms Jones said.
“We advised the PSA that we had allocated a total budget of 2% of the wage bill this year for salary reviews for all staff. Based on performance, this will mean most employees would receive pay increases of 2% or more.
“Comments from the PSA that they have sought 2% across the board pay increases for this year and next are grossly misleading. The pay proposal tabled by the PSA would cost the Corporation up to 7% in the first year,” Ms Jones said.
“We have also offered our PSA members a $500 one-off lump sum payment in consideration of changes to the collective agreement with those members. The PSA has refused to accept that.
“We have recognised that Housing New Zealand’s redundancy provisions are low in comparison with other agencies, so we have offered to increase the redundancy cap to 26 weeks salary, or $22,248, which ever is higher. Again, the PSA has not accepted this offer,” Ms Jones said.
“PSA claims that the maintenance budget for state homes has been cut by 21 per cent, and this will increase the workloads of staff, are grossly misleading. About $13m of savings in the maintenance budget have been identified, less than 10 per cent of the $202m spend last year. Almost half of these savings are derived from new contracts to purchase the same services for less, with no impact on staff.
“Every responsive maintenance job we have to do, we will still do. There will be no cuts to that service.”
“Like public and private organisations around the world, Housing New Zealand is operating in an environment of restraint. The claims by the PSA are neither affordable at present or appropriate.”
Media Contact: Nick Maling, Communications and Media Manager, ph 04 439 3857, 021 229 4105
