Happy New Year!
I’m not quite sure where to start with a summary of December. In amongst the silly season chaos, there were a number of significant IR events that occurred – Business NZ turning down a role in Fair Pay Agreements, strikes in various different sectors, pay equity settlement for nurses and some crazy economic predictions for 2022! Also, the pre-Christmas 2022 minimum wage announcement that we were waiting for didn’t come.
As always, the key points are summarised below.
1. December Industrial Relations Activities
- FIRST Union and chicken farmer Cobb Vantress NZ settle on an agreement with a 17% increase.
- APEX medical physicists at the DHBs took three 24-hour stoppages in December, having been caught up in the public sector pay freeze.
- RMTU withdraws strike notice at KiwiRail after reaching settlement.
- RMTU withdraws seven strike notices at Port of Timaru, after reaching settlement in mediation.
- APEX mammographers in the South Island take strike action at Pacific Radiology Group, over parity with DHB mammographers.
- Fifth strike at Claud Switzer Memorial Trust rest home in Kaitaia, by E tū.
- Unite members at SkyCity in Hamilton prepare for the first strike of 2022 in a bid for parity with Auckland.
2. DHB Nurses pay equity agreed in principle
The pay equity claim for NZNO and PSA members at the DHBs has been agreed in principle. This is a significant agreement that will reach much further than the 40,000 nurses employed by DHBs. Documentation is still to be drawn up, and likely to be available early in the new year.
3. Business NZ and Fair Pay Agreements
Business NZ have rejected the Government’s offer to be party to the Fair Pay Agreement system as they do not believe that it is in the best interests of business. Legislation is expected to be introduced in early 2022, and people will have an opportunity to comment on the bill during the Select Committee process. The 22-minute interview from RNZ’s The Detail, that is on the link above, has an excellent summary of what we know about that process to date.
4. 2022 Economic Outlook
The various different economic predictors have all flagged the same key risk factors for 2022. These are the Omicron variant (which wasn’t in NZ in December when these predictions were published); inflation; supply chain disruption and labour shortages. Some economists also predict house prices to fall, more OCR hikes and consumer confidence. CPI is predicted to peak for December 2021 at 5.7%, through to March 2022.
5. How to Get Anyone to Do Anything
On this podcast episode from Freakonomics Radio, Social Psychologist Robert Cialdini is interviewed and gives a master class in the seven psychological levers that lead us to buy, behave or believe anything. Listen to it with your industrial relations hat on for his tips and tricks.