Clendon David: Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Clendon David: Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:676;Page:21836] 
DAVID CLENDON (Green) 
: 
 Kia ora koutou. It is a pleasure to take a brief call on the Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Bill which rights a wrong. We have supported this bill throughout its passage and are pleased to continue to do that. It feels much more wholesome to be involved in supporting a bill that implements a Court of Appeal decision rather than earlier this afternoon when we saw a bill overturning a Supreme Court decision. 
My colleague Catherine Delahunty who sat in on the select committee on this matter observed that she was very pleased to experience a sense of unity and common purpose amongst the Government the unions and the key employer IDEA Services in this case. She reflected that other than for the matter of some minor technical changes the goodwill towards this legislation passing in a timely fashion was reflected in the sense that there was a sense of realism and an emergent sense of mutual respect in place of the rather unfortunate denial that was evident in earlier sessions when some question was posed as to whether the night-shift work was actually work at all. Of course we know that it is work and these people are absolutely entitled to at least the minimum wage and in fact probably considerably more than that. 
It is true of course that the money—the cash—is important to these workers but equally important to them is the question of training setting some core competencies developing mandatory competencies and for that to be an ongoing process. This is not unskilled work. This is important; it is about looking after the needs of people who are vulnerable people who are in need of care on a 24-hour basis and it is very desirable that that should go ahead. 
It has been noted that not only will the union members who fought so hard benefit from this but also it is to be hoped that it will perhaps be a lesson and perhaps will reveal to those workers who are not yet members of the appropriate union that there is real value in joining the unions. There was a single gentleman a Mr Phillip Dickson and to his great credit he initiated this process but clearly it was a matter of collective bargaining. It was the power of the collective represented by the Service and Food Workers Union and the Public Service Association that actually brought this to fruition. Again that clearly represents the importance of unionising particularly in workplaces that are low-paid where individuals have very little power and where the power of the collective has been a very important phenomenon to ensure that they get justice in this case. 
Clearly as I have said the issue does not simply reflect that these people will finally be acknowledged for the skills and the compassion that they bring to this task. The amount of money per hour that these people have been paid is an amount of money that in this day and age the average 10-year-old would be underwhelmed by if offered that amount to do a simple household task. Bringing this into line over time with the minimum wage—and a minimum wage that we would sincerely hope and advocate will be raised to a more appropriate level; ultimately two-thirds of the average wage—will be a much more satisfactory outcome. 
With those brief words I will simply close by saying that we are pleased that this is being completed in a timely fashion. We wish all the best to those people who are continuing to do this very difficult and demanding work and we wish them well. Kia ora koutou.