Latest news with #Fitzsimons
Scoop
2 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Community Corrections Staff Gearing Up For Industrial Action
Press Release – PSA 'We will be looking to take industrial action if we do not get an improved offer from Corrections, and the mediation, set down for Wednesday 4 June, fails,' says Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pkenga … Community Corrections staff – who manage the 26,000 people the Department of Corrections is responsible for outside of prisons – are gearing up to take industrial action. Community Corrections staff – including Probation Officers and Electronic Monitoring staff – are frustrated with low pay and ballooning workloads further fuelled by anger over the Government's rushed changes to the Pay Equity Act, says Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi. 'We will be looking to take industrial action if we do not get an improved offer from Corrections, and the mediation, set down for Wednesday 4 June, fails,' Fitzsimons says. Community Corrections staff are 68% female, which falls just agonisingly short of the Government's new threshold requiring a workforce to be made up of 70% women to take a pay equity claim. 'Up until the recent reversal, Probation Officers were subject to a five-year long pay equity claim, they were found to be significantly undervalued and their claim was before the Employment Relations Authority to be settled, Fitzsimons says. 'With the ability to raise a pay equity claim cynically extinguished by the Government, underpaid Community Corrections workers will be expecting to see a significantly improved offer from Corrections,' Fitzsimons says. Community Corrections workers include probation officers, programme facilitators, electronic monitoring staff, community work supervisors, bail support officers, administration staff, and many others. On any given day, Community Corrections staff work with 70% of the people Correction is responsible for, about 26,000 people living in the community. These people include those: who have been released from prison; who are serving Community-based sentences; who are electronically monitored; and who are on electronic bail. PSA union Community Corrections members have been negotiating with Corrections since December and have been offered increases of around 1%, further embedding their low pay, Fitzsimons says. The PSA is balloting members on taking three escalating actions – a complete withdrawal of labour for two, then four then eight hours. An indicative poll of Delegates showed unanimous support for industrial action.
Scoop
3 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Community Corrections Staff Gearing Up For Industrial Action
Press Release – PSA 'We will be looking to take industrial action if we do not get an improved offer from Corrections, and the mediation, set down for Wednesday 4 June, fails,' says Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pkenga … Community Corrections staff – who manage the 26,000 people the Department of Corrections is responsible for outside of prisons – are gearing up to take industrial action. Community Corrections staff – including Probation Officers and Electronic Monitoring staff – are frustrated with low pay and ballooning workloads further fuelled by anger over the Government's rushed changes to the Pay Equity Act, says Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi. 'We will be looking to take industrial action if we do not get an improved offer from Corrections, and the mediation, set down for Wednesday 4 June, fails,' Fitzsimons says. Community Corrections staff are 68% female, which falls just agonisingly short of the Government's new threshold requiring a workforce to be made up of 70% women to take a pay equity claim. 'Up until the recent reversal, Probation Officers were subject to a five-year long pay equity claim, they were found to be significantly undervalued and their claim was before the Employment Relations Authority to be settled, Fitzsimons says. 'With the ability to raise a pay equity claim cynically extinguished by the Government, underpaid Community Corrections workers will be expecting to see a significantly improved offer from Corrections,' Fitzsimons says. Community Corrections workers include probation officers, programme facilitators, electronic monitoring staff, community work supervisors, bail support officers, administration staff, and many others. On any given day, Community Corrections staff work with 70% of the people Correction is responsible for, about 26,000 people living in the community. These people include those: who have been released from prison; who are serving Community-based sentences; who are electronically monitored; and who are on electronic bail. PSA union Community Corrections members have been negotiating with Corrections since December and have been offered increases of around 1%, further embedding their low pay, Fitzsimons says. The PSA is balloting members on taking three escalating actions – a complete withdrawal of labour for two, then four then eight hours. An indicative poll of Delegates showed unanimous support for industrial action.
Scoop
3 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Community Corrections Staff Gearing Up For Industrial Action
Community Corrections staff - who manage the 26,000 people the Department of Corrections is responsible for outside of prisons - are gearing up to take industrial action. Community Corrections staff - including Probation Officers and Electronic Monitoring staff - are frustrated with low pay and ballooning workloads further fuelled by anger over the Government's rushed changes to the Pay Equity Act, says Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi. "We will be looking to take industrial action if we do not get an improved offer from Corrections, and the mediation, set down for Wednesday 4 June, fails," Fitzsimons says. Community Corrections staff are 68% female, which falls just agonisingly short of the Government's new threshold requiring a workforce to be made up of 70% women to take a pay equity claim. "Up until the recent reversal, Probation Officers were subject to a five-year long pay equity claim, they were found to be significantly undervalued and their claim was before the Employment Relations Authority to be settled, Fitzsimons says. "With the ability to raise a pay equity claim cynically extinguished by the Government, underpaid Community Corrections workers will be expecting to see a significantly improved offer from Corrections," Fitzsimons says. Community Corrections workers include probation officers, programme facilitators, electronic monitoring staff, community work supervisors, bail support officers, administration staff, and many others. On any given day, Community Corrections staff work with 70% of the people Correction is responsible for, about 26,000 people living in the community. These people include those: who have been released from prison; who are serving Community-based sentences; who are electronically monitored; and who are on electronic bail. PSA union Community Corrections members have been negotiating with Corrections since December and have been offered increases of around 1%, further embedding their low pay, Fitzsimons says. The PSA is balloting members on taking three escalating actions - a complete withdrawal of labour for two, then four then eight hours. An indicative poll of Delegates showed unanimous support for industrial action.
Scoop
5 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Govt Funding Squeeze Sees DOC Propose Cutting 84 Roles
More than 90% of those losing their livelihoods are women workers Two weeks after their pay equity claim was cancelled, dozens of underpaid, mostly women frontline workers at the Department of Conservation (DOC) are now facing redundancy. In a change proposal released today, DOC is looking at another round of job cuts, as the organisation consults on a proposal to lose 84 support roles by July 2026. In total, 149 roles will be disestablished, with 65 with new roles being created (49 of which would be part-time). Only 18 of the 149 roles set to be disestablished are vacant. PSA National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons says more than 90 per cent of the staff facing redundancy are women, based on the PSA membership data, which includes 90 affected workers. "This is a graphic example of how the burden of the Government's squeeze on public service funding is falling disproportionally on women. At the same time as the Government is stopping pay equity claims for more than 150,000 underpaid, mainly female workers including claims that cover DOC workers. The attacks on women just keep coming from this Government," Fitzsimons says. The proposal has taken a sweeping look at support staff across the organisation. Staff at 38 locations from Invercargill to the far North will be affected. Many of these staff hold critical health and safety responsibilities, which Fitzsimons says should be a concern for an organisation where so many team members work in remote locations. "The current support staff have sizeable health and safety responsibilities, such as monitoring staff radio systems and helping to manage emergencies like fires. The loss of these team members will mean that these important duties will fall on others - and pose a significant health and safety risk. "It doesn't make sense - why would you put these kinds of tasks onto a specialist team member with a lot on their plate already? You can't just absorb 84 disestablished roles into an organisation - it doesn't work." The proposal will also see many of the affected workers, who are on DOC's lowest pay bands, competing with their colleagues for part-time roles, Fitzsimons says. "The support workers at DOC would have benefitted from a pay equity claim that was well underway before it was cruelly cancelled by the Government. "Now, many of these women would have arrived at work to find their job was on the line - and that they might have to compete against their team members for the new positions being established." The continued squeeze on DOC funding ultimately puts its projects - and New Zealand's natural environment - at risk, Fitzsimons says. "Systematically under-funding DOC will unfortunately mean they'll be unable to deliver as well as they could for New Zealand conservation. This Government's spending priorities are clear: landlords and big corporates are in, but women and the environment are out." Other PSA releases on DOC: Using Scoop for work? Scoop is free for personal use, but you'll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features. Join Pro Individual Find out more
Scoop
7 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
PSA Supports Peoples' Select Committee On Undemocratic Pay Equity Changes
The PSA welcomes the launch today of a People's select committee to hear the views of women, pay equity experts and other New Zealanders on the Government's rushed changes to the Pay Equity Act. The legislation, which has slammed the brakes on pay equity claims for more than 150,000 underpaid, mainly female workers of was never signaled during the election campaign and rushed through the House under urgency without a select committee process. "The people whose livelihoods were seriously impacted by this undemocratic legislation should have had a chance to have their say, National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons says. "We call on the Government to do what's fair - repeal the law and let women, unions, employers and pay equity experts have their say in a proper select committee process. We want to be heard so that New Zealand women have a pay equity system that works. This is how a democracy is supposed to operate," Fitzsimons says. "We thank and acknowledge Former National MP Marilyn Waring and the other former MPs who will serve on the Select Committee. However, in a properly functioning democracy the Government Ministers responsible should have done what they are paid to do and set up a proper select committee process." "Women, unions and employers have spent hours and thousands of dollars working on the detailed hard graft of pay equity claims, and this work should be recognised by having their say in a proper select committee process. "The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi PSA will support the work of the committee and be making a submission and that we will seek repeal of the 2025 amendments and instead a focus on speeding up settlements under the Act. "The changes to the Act are a betrayal of the principles of equality we assumed were now settled and it was just gutting when the betrayal became real on budget day. The changes were shocking and hurtful."
