Where's the Workers Advisory Council?

Monday, 10 September 2018

Jacinda Ardern has established a Business Advisory Council.

OPINION: Business confidence surveys have been receiving more than their fair share of airtime and analysis recently. No one seems to be reflecting in the same way, however, on the confidence of working people and how they feel about our economy.

Workforce confidence is worth reflecting on, though, as businesses cannot survive without healthy and thriving workers. Through our role as a union, we're seeing both that workforce confidence is increasing, and that this is a good thing for our economy, our workers, and our country as a whole.

The business confidence surveys are subjective. They represent the views and expectations of CEOs, whose opinions are largely based on their firms' day-to-day operations and their preconceived political preferences. As such, these surveys are not reliable predictors of any real worth.

Even Business NZ has conceded that business opinion is at odds with reality, and looking back, that this isn't an unusual state of affairs.

* Prime Minister doubles down on business confidence, says 'no grounds' for uncertainty

* Government makes play for business support with new advisory board on trade**

Dennis Maga: 'If the wage share was the same in 2017 as it was in 1981, New Zealand workers would be earning on average $12,500 more per year.'

We should be clear, though, that we're in the middle of one of the most controversial political wranglings of this decade between businesses (though, of course, not all business), and hard-working New Zealanders. So despite their unreliability, it's important that we take these business confidence surveys seriously, while also factoring in the views and opinions of working people.

Workers might not have their own confidence surveys, but they're certainly making their feelings clear. We're seeing a jump in aspirational wage claims in our own union and in other unions around the country, as well as an increase in union members taking action to achieve their goals. Bus drivers, teachers, nurses and retail workers; all manner of working people have been hitting the headlines as they take action for a better deal at work.

We can trace this back to the early-1980s, when the discrepancy between capital-owners and wage earners share of New Zealand's domestic income widened sharply, and despite a modest rise between 2002 and 2009, it's widening again.

If the wage share was the same in 2017 as it was in 1981, New Zealand workers would be earning on average $12,500 more per year. This is without even taking into account the astronomical increases in the price of living driven by the housing market. Viewed in this light, the wage demands of workers across the country seem remarkably reasonable.

The fall of the wage share of our domestic income can in large part be attributed to laws which decimated unions and collective bargaining, and commercialised and privatised state-owned assets. Over 30 years later from these reforms, we still have some of the weakest collective bargaining legislation in the OECD. It's no wonder that working people have elected this coalition government to reverse this trend, and it's about time that their confidence has risen to the point where they are talking action in support of simple things like safe staffing and living wages.

Simon Bridges has said business confidence is falling off a cliff, and cited the proposed industrial law reform as a reason why. These reforms include the right of unions to access worksites, the right to negotiate across more than one employer and the duty on both parties to continue bargaining until it is concluded. It's basic stuff. It's the stuff the people elected this coalition government to do. Most of it is just reversing changes made by the last National government. And it helps balance out the playing field.

In response to this stubbornly low business confidence, Jacinda Ardern has established a Business Advisory Council. I'd like to take this moment to advise the advisory council: the proposed industrial law reforms are here to provide a pathway to better New Zealand businesses, for everyone in New Zealand.

The Government needs to make sure, while listening to the concerns of business, to keep an ear out for the concerns of the workforce. There is no Workers Advisory Council. Perhaps, in times of rising worker confidence, when the demands of the workforce are being very clearly articulated, there should be.

For now though, it would be enough for business to settle down, come to the table, and think collaboratively about the future of our economy. For everyone's sake.

Dennis Maga is general secretary of First Union.