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Two aphorisms came to mind when the government announced last week it had launched a tripartite investigation – comprising BusinessNZ, the Council of Trade Unions and the government – to investigate the creation of a European-style unemployment insurance scheme to pay redundant workers around 80% of their income while they retrain and find another good job.
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is
The first question I’m struck by is why two bodies supposed to be at loggerheads would want a build a scheme that seemed so generous. Who is going to pay for this – employers? Workers? The government?
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New Zealand: Wellington bus drivers reject second pay offer, vote for strikes
At a stopwork meeting last Thursday, bus drivers in New Zealand’s capital city Wellington voted 204–3 to reject a new pay offer from NZ Bus and approved a fresh round of strikes. Drivers also passed a unanimous motion of no confidence in NZ Bus management, declaring the company was not fit to run public transport services.
Bus drivers protesting the lockout on April 23. (Credit: WSWS Media)
The meeting followed a week of talks mediated by the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), chaired by the Labour Party’s Daran Ponter, which contracts NZ Bus, the country’s largest operator, for services in the capital.
An unemployment insurance scheme could cost anywhere between $450 million and $5 billion a year, depending on how many people lose their jobs, and how generous it is, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) says.
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has indicated the government is looking at an ACC-style unemployment insurance scheme (file image).
Photo: 123RF
The government is pushing ahead with designing a social unemployment insurance scheme with Business New Zealand and the Council of Trade Unions.
Such a scheme, which is common overseas, has been more seriously considered by the government in the aftermath of the economic shock from Covid-19 last year.