Trade unions head zeros in on local job insecurity

President of the NZ Council of Trade Unions Helen Kelly was in Tauranga yesterday. Photo / John Borren

Outgoing New Zealand Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly took aim at zero-hour contracts and the job insecurity they create, during a visit to Tauranga yesterday.

Ms Kelly was invited to speak at the Wesley Centre last night on issues facing union workers, including minimum wages, zero-hour contracts and whether increasing wages would be good or bad for New Zealand society.

Before the meeting, Ms Kelly, who was diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year, said there were 600,000 workers across New Zealand who had job insecurity, including fixed-term, casual and zero-hour contracts.

Ms Kelly explained the contracts as being "crazy arrangements".

"There would be thousands of workers in the Tauranga region on low pay and not knowing if they were going to have work tomorrow or the next day.

"Most of it is in 24/7 businesses that could actually offer permanent hours and it is done to keep workers hungry and to keep them guessing. It's bad for business, it's bad for New Zealand business for trading and investment and bad for working people."

Ms Kelly said she was not concerned with leaving a legacy.

"I do this work because I like doing this work and because I believe in it. It's just good work. So my goal is to just keep doing it for as long as I can and to hope to leave behind a structure where it can continue."

She had started to feel the effects of the cancer and the accompanying treatments had slowed her down.

"I don't know how long I can continue doing it for. But I promised to do this talk ages ago and I was keen to do it," she said.