Its been a good week for workers rights in Aotearoa. Firstly, the Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill has become law. Secondly, the Fair Pay Agreements Bill passed its first reading and was sent to select committee. The first gives people an extra public holiday, which is always welcome. The second promises to improve pay and conditions across the board, through sector bargaining and the setting of minimum conditions.
Business is squealing, raising the terror of higher wages, meal breaks and overtime. All of which sound like a damn good thing! As Morgan Godfrey points out, employers have captured the value of virtually all productivity gains since the 1990's, and this bill restores the balance. Its about letting workers keep more of what they produce, rather than seeing all their surplus value stolen by their boss.
Supposedly these changes will force some businesses to go out of business. At least one economist thinks that's a good thing. According to Tony Alexander, businesses which can't afford to pay proper wages should fail, so that their employees can go work somewhere else which can:
"What we need in our country is a reallocation of people to higher-paying, higher profit jobs. That requires that the inefficient firms unable to pay decent wages to go out of business," Alexander said. "Enforced higher wage and non-wage costs are a way of doing that.New Zealand employers have been coddled by NeoLiberal governments and subsidised by low wages and poor conditions for too long. The sooner that ends, and they are forced to stand on their own feet, the better."It's called 'creative destructionism' and it lies at the very core of capitalism. We need more businesses to fail - not because of an economic downturn but because they don't produce a product or service valued enough by consumers to be able to pay high wages."
