Hayden Ricketts: Mission Homefront co-founder on Christmas leave getting cancelled for military personnel

Christmas and New Year's leave has been cancelled for military personnel set to cover for striking from non-uniform staff.

The Defence Minister last month invoked the Defence Act, letting uniformed servicemen and woman fill the gaps.

Advocacy group Mission Homefront has written to Judith Collins - saying that's unprecedented and unacceptable.

Co-founder Hayden Ricketts says uniformed staff already give so much.

"You know, those uniformed staff have worked their butts off during the Covid-19 response, they occupied and looked after our country and MIQ and the managed isolation facilities, they've done their best through Cyclone Gabrielle."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Military personnel have had their Christmas and New Year leave
canceled to fill the gaps left by striking civilian staff.
The Defense Minister, Judith Collins, last month invoked the really
used power to allow soldiers to do civilian work to
fill the gaps caused by the PSA members who are
striking in negotiations. Mission home Front, which is a group
that represents military personnel, has written to the Minister saying

(00:22):
that this is an unprecedented and unacceptable move. Hayden Ricketts
is a retired lieutenant colonel. He's from Mission home Front
and he's with me this afternoon. Hayden gid a, Hey, Ryan,
how are you. I'm good, Thank you, thanks for being
with me. How many military personnel are we talking about
here who might have their Christmas leave cancel or have

(00:43):
to come in a New Year's.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
But the Defense Force responded to the letter that we
wrote to the Minister and said that the calculating around
about fifty. I dispute that fat might be fifty in
one location, but across all locations in New Zealand were
talking about hundreds of people have been affected. People have
had to volunteer to come on to do the security
and to do the fire fighting work. And as you

(01:09):
stated in your intro, you know, this is an example
of how low government funding has got the Defense Force
into the situation where the Chief Defense Forces in the
position where he has offered a zero percent pay rise
to the three thousand civilian staff that work as part
of the military and the New Zealand Defense Force. And
as you're described, you know, we in Mission Homefront think

(01:31):
that's an unacceptable situation for us to be in.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
They were offered a zero percent pay increase. Can you
understand why the civilians are striking?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I think I can understand just as much as your listeners,
and you can understand. You know, that's a real insulting
slap in the face. You know, the defense civilians work
just as hard. They're just as dedicated to their job
to their country as the military staff. They are the
backbone of a lot of the operational component parts for
the military. While soldier sailors and air men and women

(02:02):
operate the aircraft, their ships and their armored vehicles, the
defensivillions of the people that make sure that all of
that is maintained, accounted for, presented, warehouse stored. They do
endless tasks and the clerical office type roles, and without
them the military wouldn't be functioning. To offer them as
zero percent pay rise is an awful situation.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
So no one in the military, you know, in the
military personnel side of it, is blaming the civilian staff
with this. It's more the lack of funding for those
who will have to come in over and be a
voluntary or forced coming over Christmas and give up their leave.
Will they get to take their leave.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
After that, absolutely, of course they will. But this is
a group of people, you know, those uniform staff, they've
worked their butts off during the COVID nineteen response. They
occupied and looked after our country and the MiQ and
the managed to isolation facilities, but done their best. Recycling
Gabrielle and we ask them to do things that many
New Zealanders won't or couldn't do. Then to ask them

(02:57):
to take on these extra roles and responsibilities to backfill
the labor from the strike, it doesn't represent the level
of I don't think that's an acceptable way to use
there their skills and roles, and it's non acceptable way
to use their valuable resource.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
You recently, you told our producer you recently left the
Defense Force yourself? What was that for? What would happen there?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
I don't want to make this about me, but I
had to leave because I couldn't afford to stay. I
was observing my pay wasn't advancing along with inflation. I'd deserved,
you know, in my own the last sort of ten
years of my service, a twenty four percent pay cut.
Of course, increases are made to pay over that time,
but it didn't keep up with inflation, and I was

(03:41):
just watching my spending power just degrading. So I had
to get out. And now I've walked on to some
better paying roles. There's lots of people have they've left
the public sector that joined sorry, left the military, joined
the public or the private sector. A lot of people
are moving to go and join the Australian Defense Force
where the can and pay are so much better. And

(04:02):
I'm just one of the casualties of the many in
the last sort of tow or three years that have
had to take that difficult decision.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
So why are you speaking out on behalf of those
you know, sworn the military that obviously not the civilians.
That's what the PSA does. But why are you taking
on this role for the military.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
So there's a series of legislative and legal rules that
mean that the chief of Defense Force, the service chiefs,
they are public officials, they are beholden to the Cabinet manual,
so they can't come out and disagree with the minister
or voice their own opinion. They had to sort of
tow the line. The Minister is not going to come
out and do any of this, she's a politician. Service
people themselves are forbidden from unionizing, so the irony that

(04:45):
they are being used to back for a union strike
is that's not lost on me. But if they have
an issue with their conditions, they have to use their
chain of command to raise that particular challenge, and that
chain of command goes all the way to the service chief.
So the net result is that these no one discussing, advocating,
having these conversations to support this narrative in the public.

(05:06):
And that's the gap that myself and my co founder,
Miss Aaron Speedy, have established. Mission home Front to China address.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
All right, Hayden, thanks very much for your time. I
appreciate it. Hayden Ricketts. He's got out of the military
himself because of the pain and the conditions.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
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