Fenton Darien: Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Bill — First Reading 
Fenton Darien: Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:676;Page:21472] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I am very pleased to support the Sleepover Wages (Settlement) Bill of which I have only just seen a copy. I will start my contribution tonight by honouring the hard work and commitment of the workers in this sector including those of the Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota who along with the Public Service Association have pursued this matter over 4 years and through three court cases and the recent threat of a Supreme Court appeal. I also acknowledge Phil Dickson the IDEA Services worker who along with his union has tested the provision in law that relates to his being paid as little as $3.77 an hour for sleeping overnight on the premises of his employer. I know the work of people like Phil Dickson; I represented them in the past before I became an MP. My sister in fact is one of them. She works for IDEA Services. I know the dedication they have and the efforts they go to in order to help the people to whom we as a society have decided to give a fair go. I am talking about Phil Dickson and thousands of other workers who work as disability support workers who sleep on the premises but are frequently woken and disturbed and as numerous courts have said who have significant and weighty responsibilities in caring for our most vulnerable citizens. 
Labour has long advocated for the rights of disability support workers to be paid fairly not only during the day but throughout the night when they are required to be alert and responsive to the complex needs of those in their care. For far too long they have been expected to work at night for less than the minimum wage. As a society we have determined that those who have intellectual and mental disabilities should as far as possible live in our communities. I think that that is the right approach and I think that the Government agrees with that. In saying that I acknowledge tonight Ros Noonan the outgoing Chief Human Rights Commissioner whom we farewelled tonight. She has been staunch in her support for the rights of those with disabilities and for the importance of the Government providing support for those people. 
I am pleased that Parliament appears to have reached agreement on this long-running dispute and I give credit to the unions that this is happening. If they had not pushed if they had not persisted this bill would not be here before us tonight. 
The truth is that what we are doing tonight is advocating a settlement at the 11th hour of the 2008 Parliament. We urged Tony Ryall way back to negotiate with the unions involved because we always knew that the unions involved would be reasonable and fair and actually they have been. If we look at the settlement we see that they have been extremely reasonable and fair. It is a shame that they have had to wait so long. 
I am pleased that this bill represents a negotiated settlement and that the Government intends to pass this legislation before the House rises at the end of next week so that these workers who have been waiting a very long time can get their back-pay. I am also pleased that the Government has heeded the call from unions and Labour that this matter be put to rest. These workers should get their back-pay before Christmas and they should start on the path to getting the minimum wage. 
It is a significant concession from the unions involved. They have agreed to forgo the entitlement that three courts have said were theirs—that is the basic right to be paid the minimum wage for all hours worked including so-called sleepovers. I find it fairly ironical that the Government has sacrificed other minimum rights for workers introducing the 90-day trial period without those workers having the right to ask why and challenge that decision. Yet here we are accepting finally that Phil Dickson and his workmates have been prepared to negotiate in good faith and as this bill reveals make concessions. It is a shame also that this Government put them through unnecessary battles. It is unworthy that we have a Government that tries to pretend that it cares about the most vulnerable in our society and those who are employed to care for them. 
In 2010 the Minister was still considering whether to change the Minimum Wage Act along the lines that were being run in court at the time. In the court at the time the Government joined with IHC to argue that the minimum wage should apply as an average across a working week or fortnight. That could have meant that multitudes of New Zealand workers would find themselves disadvantaged. When we tried to find out information about that the Government blocked all requests. Through earlier Official Information Act requests we asked the Minister of Labour for more information about it but she withheld 10 documents in full including Cabinet papers. That meant that a whole range of wage and salary workers could not find out exactly what was being considered. So when the Court of Appeal decision came through recently Labour called for the Government to meet with stakeholders a bit earlier in the year. We called on the Government to meet with stakeholders in the disability support sector including the union to negotiate a durable and long-term solution. That was in February this year I think so here we are on the eve of Parliament rising—we are finally getting around to it—and finally the Government has agreed. I acknowledge that this bill represents countless hours and sacrifices in pay and justice by a category of workers who work caring for the most vulnerable in our community. 
While this has been going on there has been the most bizarre stuff happening as well in this industry. It is no wonder that it has been hard for IHC and other disability support providers to find New Zealand workers who are prepared to work for $3.77 an hour which is what these workers are being paid. I have met many overseas workers who have come to me—and I am sure they have been to other MPs—to say that they are doing this work to ask why they cannot continue to do the work and to ask for a work permit and so on. But the Government on the one hand has continued to insist that those workers because there was a court case must be paid minimum wage but at the same time has denied that minimum wage to its own workers. So I found that really interesting and also very difficult. The industry is so low-paid—and I think we are seeing a plan from the Government to fill up all the caring industries with overseas workers because they are prepared to do work that New Zealanders will not do—and I think that is a real pity. I am not saying that those workers were any less committed than New Zealand workers but they got sent home while the Department of Labour and the Attorney-General continued to argue during the stand-off that we have had for several years on this issue. The Attorney-General joined the Court of Appeal’s decision to argue that IDEA Services was complying with the Minimum Wage Act because the Minimum Wage Act enabled averaging. So we had a bizarre situation where one arm of the Department of Labour was arguing about the Minimum Wage Act and the other arm of the Department of Labour concerning immigration was saying something different. 
There was a long period where the Government did nothing. I think that it is shameful that IHC was forced to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on a fruitless legal quest. The Government wasted money as well by joining those various court appeals to argue that what they finally agreed was right was wrong at the time. I think it thought that the disability support workers would give up. They did not—and good on them. It was really awful in July when the Minister of Health attacked workers saying that because of a legal technicality they were now expecting to be paid the minimum wage for sleeping and retrospectively paid from that point. Then he went on to lecture the unions about the country borrowing millions and how the Government could not afford it. 
This bill is a triumph. We support it. We are glad that it is going to a select committee. The sooner it gets back to the House the better. These workers deserve their back-pay. They have made a significant concession. Let us face it: they have accepted half of the back-pay and it will take to 2013 to get paid the minimum wage. It is a shame that it has taken years to get there but Labour is supporting it because it is time for these workers to be paid their just desserts.