Katene Rahui: Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Katene Rahui: Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:676;Page:21838] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 I am really pleased to stand to speak on the Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Bill this afternoon. This afternoon in the House has been a game of two halves. The first half involved legislation that we were appalled to see passed under urgency and lacking the due consideration it required for the public to engage with it and understand the full implications of the Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill. But the second half—this bill—is a completely different story. 
This bill signals the successful resolution of a longstanding claim concerning about 5700 of the country’s lowest-paid workers. It is a story about counting the value of the dedicated commitment so many of these workers have made to making life just that much easier for the people they are supporting. The bill enacts the commitment of Cabinet to raise sleepover rates for disability support workers from the current IHC rates of $34 a night to the minimum wage of $13 an hour over the next 15 months. The Maori Party is proud of our Minister Tariana Turia for the work she has done alongside the Minister of Health to get this deal through. 
In many ways this has been described as a landmark deal—a $100 million opportunity to pay these unsung heroes the minimum wage for overnight sleepover shifts from Christmas next year. The deal includes back-pay from July 2005 of half the difference between what workers were paid and the minimum wage applying at the time—up to $70000 in some cases for some workers. It is a wonderful early Christmas present and I am proud to be part of a Parliament that will enable this legislation to pass. 
I have a personal association with the sleepover issue. One of my sons spent 5 years supporting young people with intellectual disabilities in a respite home. He would take on the night shifts over the weekend and he and one other worker would base themselves at the residence and prepare for come what may. Often those nights with the rangatahi were challenging to say the least. It was not at all uncommon for the inhabitants to somehow escape the house in various states of undress and embark on a long walk to town along the nearby railway tracks. When my son finally caught up with the absconders inevitably it was something of an ordeal to persuade them to come back home and to stay home for the rest of the night. 
The other thing of note from this time was that often once the residents were fed showered toileted and put to bed for the night the real work would actually begin. Soiled clothes and linen would be washed bathrooms would be scrubbed the house would be brought back to a semblance of order and paperwork would be done. This was not just a one-off occurrence; working with young people with intellectual disabilities was a challenge. Often there would be an incident that would require the workers to be intensively involved in providing supervision support management and quality of care. 
Yet here is the rub: between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. my son and his co-workers would receive the princely sum of about $34 as the sleepover rate. That equates to about $3.80 an hour which is barely the price of a bottle of milk. Such a pitiful payment fails to reflect the importance of appropriate and responsible care being available for some of our most vulnerable citizens. It also fails to take into account the fact that the work that is undertaken during the time when presumably one is meant to be asleep is arduous back-breaking work. It is physical work. Workers were not allowed to leave the premises in that time; they were to stay on site and be available for any eventuality. It is not simply a matter of curling up on the bed for a good sleep and hoping that everyone else will do the same—far from it. 
Frequently it requires a level of compassion understanding and sensitivity that will ensure the appropriate and respectful care of the people the workers are responsible for looking after. As my son put it it requires a heart. He also told me that the management and the staff he worked with were wonderful people. They were committed they were kind and they were dedicated to meeting the needs of those in the residence. But when it came down to it $34 is a pittance for the work the skill and the humanity required to exercise these roles. I wanted to tell that story today because sometimes I think we speak to legislation with generic terms like “employer” “employee” “the health and disability sector” and “minimum wage” and we forget about the human dimension to the situation. 
I congratulate IDEA Services Ltd Timata Hou Services and the Service and Food Workers Union for their perseverance in doing what they can to improve the conditions for those providing such vital services for vulnerable people overnight. I acknowledge too the submissions made to the Health Committee by the Service and Food Workers Union—Nga Ringa Tota—the Public Service Association and IDEA Services Ltd. I recognise the effort of Business New Zealand and the Employers’ Chambers of Commerce Central in taking up the opportunity to present a submission even under such dire circumstances and time frame. But at the end of the day although the Government the unions and the providers have come to the party our greatest accolades must be reserved for those who work sleepovers— 
Chris Hipkins 
: Who wrote this? Just table it. 
RAHUI KATENE 
: —and the difference they make to the lives of the many people they support. 
The Maori Party unlike that member over there is very much a supporter of the view put forward by Mahatma Gandhi who said “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” We believe that the moral test of any society is how the most vulnerable members fare and in this regard we wholeheartedly endorse the Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Bill to provide certainty for employers employees and the Government to establish a sustainable pathway to improve the pay for thousands of employees who undertake this vital work and most of all to ensure continuity of care for those who will benefit the most from the impact of this legislation—the people who require the support of others to stay overnight. 
Bill read a third time.