Duane Leo: PSA National Secretary on the Internal Affairs staff strike

Unionised Internal Affairs staff are taking a stand, striking for the first time in the department's 138-year history. 

More than 1300 workers walked off the job for two hours today, responding to the latest pay offer.

The Public Service Association says it doesn't keep pace with inflation - with members already struggling with the cost of living. 

National Secretary Duane Leo says they won't accept an offer that takes them backwards. 

He says this is the Government's workforce, and through ongoing funding cuts, these employees are becoming the working poor. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afterday and welcome to the program. Seven out of five,
more than thirteen hundred workers from the Departments of Internal
Affairs have gone on strike. They went on strike at
lunchtime today for a couple of hours. The clctic mix
of employees are people who process passports and birth certificates
of National Library workers and gambling regulators just to name
with you. So the pay negotiations with the Department of
Internal Affairs have been going on for four months now.

(00:21):
All the workers are all members of the Public Service Association.
So Dwyane Leo is the PSA National Secretary and joins me.
Now Dwaine, Hello, Hello Andrew. Why are they spent to you?
Why are they striking?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Teeth in here is that workers are on strike because
they need a fear payoffer that keeps pace with the
cost of living. I mean, this government does not understand
that members will not accept an offer that takes them
in the services they deliver backwards.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
What do you say, what do you think their offer is.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well in terms of what they've offered basically, So I'll
give you an example. We have a large group of
our membership, our identity service officers, and at the moment
they earn around sixty five dollars annually. That's not a lot,
and they've been offered basically point eight so less than
one percent in terms of an increase, and that compares
to a cost of living at the moment that is

(01:11):
it running at three point one percent. So they're being
asked to take a pay cut to do their job.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
But the DIA says that you are actually ignoring the
system of lump sum payments. You know that very cost
but average round about fifteen hundred dollars. And the reason
you don't like that is because it doesn't increase workers
ongoing base salaries. So you're turning your back on money
that is being offered and not counting it.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well. I think here, Andrew, let's be clear, the cost
of living crisis is not a lump sum. It doesn't
happen for a month and then go away. So what
a lump sum will do is for a month, a
month and a half, two months, depending on how much
is offered, it'll give people a slight bump and then
it's gone. And then they're faced with the reality of
having to continue to pay and work in an environment
where the cost of living is running well ahead of

(01:55):
any income that they receive.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
But the money is the money, and you analyze it
over a year and if they get the same money
or they'll just have to budget it.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well budget I mean, Andrew that the situation is at
the moment, we know that our members are struggling. I mean,
we talked to our members annually and seven out of
ten of them are finding harder just to afford the necessities.
At the moment, almost three and ten are having to
seek additional income. But the key thing here is these
are public service workers. This is the government's workforce, and

(02:24):
these employees, through ongoing cuts and funding, are basically facing
the situation now where they're becoming the working poor.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
The department also says, you haven't included step progression, and
step progression is a core component of the salary increase.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Are they right, well, step progression reflects the increased experience
and time that these workers have done in their career.
So they work and they get increases based on their
tenure and based on their service and the work that
they provide. So there, but that's got nothing to do
with cost of living. Cost of living changes on an
annual basis, and the problem we've got now is the

(02:58):
cost of living has been so so high and in
terms of DIA as an example, has fallen so far
behind that their rates are just not survivable. I mean,
you just need to look today in terms of the
ALLECD report that ranks New Zealand at the bottom of
thirty seven developed countries. Since the mid twenties twenty twenties,
our real wages have plummeted by over six percent.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Now you use the example of the Life and Identity
Services officers. You told me that they get about sixty
five thousand dollars a year. We've gone to the department
and they say the offer for someone on sixty five
thousand dollars was an increase in salary of six point
four percent over two years, plus a lump sum payment
of twenty one hundred. So they say, what are you

(03:41):
talking about.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, well, I'll tell you what we're talking about, Andrew.
That's them again relying on the step progression increases. So again,
these are step progression around the work that these workers
are doing, acknowledging their experience, the development and how they've
gained in those roles. That's got nothing to do with
the cost of living increase. And if we go back
to the the core around that was zero point eight percent,

(04:02):
less than one percent. And what's extremely frustrating is we
know for effect that with other agencies they're giving them
double that in terms of increases, and that's still not
and I want to make a point here, that is
still not the same as the cost of living. So
still when we talk about what's been bargained for, they're
still not going to get and keep up with cost
of living increases that they're facing at the moment.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Duane, I think you for your time today from the
PSA that is dwanne Leo.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
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