Low paid workers are celebrating the passing of the Fair Pay Bill which could put them on track for sector-wide collective agreements.
Sarah Thompson, the team leader for cleaners and security guards in E Tu union, says the next step will be to get workers to sign on for a collective negotiation.
As well as consistent pay rates across an industry, members are excited about the requirement training and development is included in all fair pay agreements.
“We’re also really looking forward to being able to negotiate the living wage as the minimum pay rate in both the security and cleaning FPAs and let’s be clear, it’s a hard time for everyone right now but for Māori, Pasifika and these workers, they were already struggling even before we had the problem with the cost of living so now we have the problem of the cost of living on top of the fact they were already on the lowest pay rates,” Ms Thompson says.
