Mark Thomas, Auckland mayor candidate. Photo/Supplied
Auckland mayoral candidates will be restricted of free speech at this evening's the Living Wage Movement meeting.
Candidate Mark Thomas said the decision to ban the contestants from distributing political information pamphlets was a "joke".
"The meeting is being held on the pretext of exchanging information about the important
issue of how to boost wages for lowly paid people," he said.
Thomas said he was a strong supporter of wages people can live on but didn't accept $19.80 was the "magic" answer.
"Phil Goff is making the same mistake as Len Brown with his promise to introduce this so-called Living Wage if he is elected mayor."
"What do we say to the person working at council earning $20 an hour who has worked at council for a few years and undertaken extra training to be to that level?"
"How motivated will they feel by the $8 million dollars it will cost to bring everyone else up to their level. This money will come from their potential wage increase.
"Goff's proposal to boost only directly employed staff creates a second-class pay system for some of council's lowest paid contract workers. That's not fair.
"Goff has never worked in the real world. If he had he would know you can't wave a magic wand to boost wages."
Thomas said while he wanted people to be paid fairly, there were 11,500 employees at Council and it was unfair to benefit one group when there were others struggling with the high costs of living in Auckland.
"I will order a review of the entire wages system at Auckland to ensure we are paying fair public sector wages for the work done, because there is considerable concern also about the 1800 staff paid over $100,000."
He said the real issue in Auckland with wage levels was the high costs of housing and transport.
"If the "Living Wage" organisers think the national minimum wage is too low, they should be targeting the Government - but they tell me they aren't because that is too difficult."
