Letter No.148
6 July, 2001

7 June 2001

Income replacement insurance has become the fastest growing kind of life and general insurance. Over the past ten years, the number of income replacement, accident and trauma insurances policies purchased by workers has increased by over 600%. Biggest users are people who own their own businesses.

8 June 2001

Gisborne mayor John Clarke meets with Tranz Rail management and is told there are no additional freight opportunities in Gisborne and therefore redundancies at the railways are inevitable. Clarke writes to Minister of Economic Development Jim Anderton asking for his assistance to stem the subsequent job losses.

A former Kirbirnie Winz employee is convicted of making illegal payments of over $31,000 into her own and her family member's bank accounts.

9 June 2001

Australia's Newcastle University's Centre for Full Employment and Equity claims that if hidden unemployment were taken into account, the Australian unemployment rate would be 13.7%. Hidden unemployment refers to people who are disillusioned and not seeking work and people who are under-employed.

10 June 2001

A coalition of twelve educational groups is formed to lobby and advise government on issues facing the industry. High on the agenda is the current shortage of secondary teachers, which is forecast to get worse.

Waikato University's vice-chancellor Bryan Gould recommends his university council should not accept the government's current funding offer. Gould says last year's fee freeze was promised to be a one-off deal and that accepting the offer "…will not allow the university to play its part in the development of a knowledge economy".

Unemployed NZ'ers are 2.3 times as likely to kill themselves as those in work, according to Wellington Medical School research. Psychiatrist Sunny Collins tells the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists that the suicide numbers could be cut if unemployment was also lower.

About 10,000 people demonstrate in Paris against recent mass lay-offs.

12 June 2001

The ANZ job ad survey finds a 0.8% increase in job advertisements over the last month and 1.2% higher than a year ago.

The Modern Apprenticeship scheme is being expanded to further industries. The Minister of Tertiary Education Steve Maharey says the new industries being targeted are aeronautical engineering, agriculture, baking, forest industries, furniture, horticulture, road transport, seafood, and sport turf management. While there are some 800 apprentices now, the government is hoping to have 3,000 apprentices on the scheme by next March.

Job cuts are expected at TVNZ as the state own enterprise announces it must cut costs by $20 million.

NZ teachers living overseas are being offered $5,000 to return and work in schools here. The bonuses are intended to fill secondary school vacancies for maths, physics, Maori-language, physical education and information communications technology teachers. The offer also applies to some primary school teaching positions.

13 June 2001

Winz CEO Christine Rankin tells the parliamentary social services committee that staff morale has been harmed by the government's announced plans to restructure the department.

14 June 2001

Minister of Economic Development Jim Anderton says that there may not be job losses on Tranz Rail's Napier-Gisborne route. Anderton: "Tranz Rail has assured the government that it does not plan to close the line in the near future, therefore there does not seem to be an immediate threat to the workers' jobs."

Food prices rose 6.2% over the last 12 months. Statistics NZ says that this is the largest annual rise since the 10% increase in 1990 with the introduction of GST.

Minister of Youth Affairs Laila Harre introduces the Minimum Wage Amendment Bill that will see teenage apprentices receiving the youth minimum wage. Harre says that while most young apprentices are paid at least the minimum wage, there are common exceptions in the hairdressing and horticulture industries. Spokespersons for both those industries say that under the new rules employers may not be able to afford to take on so many trainees. Susan Shipley of Skill NZ says that most of the industries involved in apprenticeships pay upwards of 80% of the adult minimum wage.

15 June 2001

Tranz Rail officials discuss employment options with its four Gisborne staff as the company considers closing its Napier-Gisborne line.

20 June 2001

Pathways to Opportunity, a booklet in which the government outlines its new approach to social security, is released. See this issue of The Jobs Letter for more details.

National MP Roger Sowry releases a petition signed by 1,000 Winz staff in support of Christine Rankin.

Winz CEO Christine Rankin's unfair dismissal claim will be heard in the Employment Court after the government's application to appeal the decision is not granted.

Christine Rankin says she has been approached by "a huge number of people" to run for the Wellington mayoralty.

21 June 2001

The Public Service Association's Richard Wagstaff questions the validity of a Winz staff petition supporting Christine Rankin. Wagstaff: "The PSA has had complaints of standover tactics. Some staff who did not sign the petition have been asked by some managers why they didn't sign it. Other staff have told us they felt coerced into signing it."

University vice-chancellors hold a meeting with senior government ministers, the first since the universities refused to accept the government's budget announcement of its annual funding offer. At the meeting are vice-chancellors James McWha, John Hood and Bryan Gould and ministers Michael Cullen, Trevor Mallard and Steve Maharey. Vice-chancellor McWha: "We took this meeting as a very significant indication of the government's desire to get this resolved."

25 June 2001

Winz CEO Christine Rankin's unfair dismissal case against State Services Commissioner Michael Wintringham begins in the Employment Court in Wellington.

A rising number of employers are expecting to take on staff during the next six months according to TMP's Job Index Survey. Some 45.2% of the 1,603 employers surveyed said they would be increasing staff. This is 3% higher than at the previous survey six months ago.

The world's largest manufacturer of computer disk drives, Maxtor, will lay off about 1,500 staff in Singapore and the US.

26 June 2001

Tranz Rail, the US owner of NZ's rail services announces it will close several long distance passenger services and sell most of the rest to an Australian company West Coast Railways. Tranz Rails Michael Beard says that all affected staff would be offered jobs elsewhere.

27 June 2001

NZ's new rail passenger service operator West Coast Railways says it would buy the passenger services that Tranz Rail is closing if the communities affected could provide solutions to make the services viable. Minister of Transport Mark Gosche says there are subsidies available for passenger services.

State Insurance will shed up jobs as it attempts to cut costs for its new overseas owner NRMA. Just 30 of State's 61 sales offices will remain open. Call centres in Hamilton with 130 staff, and Tauranga with 75 staff, will also close.

28 June 2001

NZ exports were at a record high in May. At $3.2 billion dollars, exports are 26% higher than this time last year.

1 July 2001

The government is criticised by Act leader Richard Prebble for a Te Puni Kokiri $10 million "capacity-building" programme which he describes as a "slush fund" for Maori and Pacific Islanders. He says there is no criteria for paying out the grants that are generally $1,000 to $2,000 each. Prebble is also critical that the government has abandoned the Closing the Gaps reports that were coming out quarterly as a monitoring of government programmes aimed at tackling problems facing Maori and Pacific Islanders.

Dunedin College of Education and Christchurch College of Education have both accepted the government's tertiary institution funding offer of 2.6%. in return for the institutions' maintaining a fee freeze.

2 July 2001

Staff shortages have required Masterton Hospital to suspend maternity services. For the next three weeks, maternity patients will be referred to either Wellington or Palmerston North hospitals.