macpac zero hour working contracts

[wayno]

a facebook page has been started about a new contract for macpac employees that they arent happy with
https://www.facebook.com/nozerohourcontracts

A page to inform Macpac workers of their rights.
Description
Macpac workers nationwide are being asked to sign zero-hours contracts that take away guaranteed hours. This means no guarantees as to how many hours you work. The boss can simply stop offering you any hours at all.

We’re sorry to see a great company treating its workers badly.

If you are happy with your current hours you don’t have to change them if you don’t want to.
For further info message us.
Just say no thanks to the new contract.

General information
We have sent a letter to the CEO of Macpac - here's the letter: http://union.org.nz/sites/union.org.nz/ ... 0821_0.pdf

[GPSGuided]

New CEO's doing?

[wayno]

not my facebook page, i only know whats written there..., interesting timing though... its not like shop workers get paid very much to start with, how can you retain experienced workers with any knowledge of wht they are selling with contracts like these.... if they are put on these contracts i wouldnt be trusting a word any macpac staff member told me ...

[blacksheep]

a sad thing to watch.

[wayno]

it's appalling

[Ent]

It never ceases to amaze me that a company pushing lifestyle products then seeks to destroy its own employees lifestyle.

[wayno]

are they going to go more into big sales? put more staff on with longer hours during the sales. cut their hours in between?
what they should do is just get extra hours with rival companies which are often next door anyway

[Clusterpod]

If Macpac can get away with this, you'd have to wonder how many other companies will follow suit.

[wayno]

in NZ our employment laws mean an employer can get away with a lot, you can work alongside someone performing a more skilled job than you and you could be getting paid the same or more than that person... employers dont have to pay penal rates for anything,
mate of mine trained up a new guy in his office, my mates pay hadnt gone up for years, once he'd trained up teh new guy the new guy was on $10 an hour more than my mate... you can be on a completely different contract to a workmate doing exactly the same job as you in the same company.. at work i have to use my car sometimes, i'm on an older contract they cant touch, i get $4k a year for running my car, all my other workmates are on mileage only and end up getting a few hundred a year... they want us all on new contracts which are totally vague about overtime remuneration, ie they dont have to pay you anything....
i belive the aus govt tried to bring in similar laws and the unions got a lot of industries to go on strike..

[Strider]

We did have similar IR laws that DID come in - and ultimately saw the demise of the Howard government.

How long has this been the case in NZ?

[wayno]

goes back well over a decade, the latest laws do away with comopulsory breaks,, its at your bosses discretion if and when you get breaks.... NZers are mugs they just dont protest hard enough, thts teh difference between aussies and nzers, aussies wouldnt stand for it,,, doesnt matter which govt is in they leave the labour laws the same. if i change jobs i'm higly likely to take a drop in my pay by a third because pay has gone backwards...
so not sure if that mapcpac contract will be valid in aus

[wayno]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv ... s-are-poor

Blame is laid squarely at the feet of the neo-liberal economic reforms spearheaded by Roger Douglas back in 1984,

[photohiker]

No longer associated with macpac. (trying to figure out what's next...)

All the best Cam, hope something good comes up for you. You deserve it.

Sad to see Macpac go downhill like this. Respect lost.

[Strider]

It's not so simple that Aussies wouldn't stand for it, the workforce here is much more unionised than is that in NZ.

[wayno]

well the unions won't stand for it, our laws have partially disarmed the unions... at one stage you got a better pay rate at my work if you didnt belong to the union....

[Macpac Ltd]

Macpac are not looking to roll out ‘Zero Hour’ contracts nationwide.

This misunderstanding stems from us closing our Mercer Street store in the Wellington CBD. We had the option to make all of our Mercer Street staff redundant, however because we value our staff and wanted to retain as many of them as possible, we integrated them into our Willis Street store in the Wellington CBD.

This has potentially adversely affected up to 7 of our team members, but allowed us to avoid making any redundancies. We will continue to work with our staff who have been impacted to find the best outcome for them.

We have, in the past, done everything possible to avoid making people redundant. This has meant working with staff in some stores to evolve their contracts. We certainly have no intention of rolling this out to all stores.

If any Macpac staff have any concerns whatsoever about anything at the company please contact your Manager, your Regional Manager, or Alex Brandon directly.

Team Macpac

[JeffS]

We published the information that Macpac workers nationwide had been given zero hours contracts in good faith on what we believed was accurate information. However, we’ve spoken to Alex (Macpac CEO) this afternoon and we were wrong about this. It’s good news that Macpac aren’t planning to roll out zero hours contracts nationally. We apologise to any Macpac workers who were (unduly) worried about their employment as a result.
In relation to the Wellington stores, Macpac inform us that they're intending to treat their workers fairly and have put the proposed contracts on hold until Alex has had a chance to meet with workers directly. We'd encourage affected workers to seek advice and support in relation to these issues if they remain concerned.
Thanks to Macpac for acting quickly to sort this issue out in a fair and friendly fashion.

[Strider]

Thanks for the clarification Jeff. Might I ask your role within Macpac, for future reference? It would seem you are much more than just a retail store employee..

[Macpac Ltd]

Thanks for the clarification Jeff. Might I ask your role within Macpac, for future reference? It would seem you are much more than just a retail store employee..

Jeff is not employed by Macpac. Jeff works for the council of trade unions and created the facebook page after mistakenly thinking Macpac were doing something which we aren’t. Jeff has written an apology and this matter is now closed as far as we are concerned.

Cheers,
Team Macpac

[Strider]

Thanks for the clarification Jeff. Might I ask your role within Macpac, for future reference? It would seem you are much more than just a retail store employee..

Jeff is not employed by Macpac. Jeff works for the council of trade unions and created the facebook page after mistakenly thinking Macpac were doing something which we aren’t. Jeff has written an apology and this matter is now closed as far as we are concerned.

Cheers,
Team Macpac

An introduction would be good. Presumably you work for Macpac - in what capacity?

[andrewa]

Stider, me thinks blacksheep was a lot more open, transparent, and personal which we all appreciated. I agree that "Macpac Ltd" , whomever/whatever that might be.......might be better to take a similar approach . I presume that most forumites would rather respond to a "person", than a "corporate response".

A ( or for transparency, Andrew Allan, GP, Toorak, Melbpurne!), but normally just signed off as A.....it's shorter

[Nuts]

I'd like to know who is posting on macpac's behalf but meh, none of my business (and probably a smart move)
Anyhow... here, the only forum 'rule' is that they should state their affiliation, nothing more. That's rule enough?

nuts

[Strider]

Stider, me thinks blacksheep was a lot more open, transparent, and personal which we all appreciated. I agree that "Macpac Ltd" , whomever/whatever that might be.......might be better to take a similar approach . I presume that most forumites would rather respond to a "person", than a "corporate response".

This is exactly what I thought too. The above interactions are like getting a recorded message on the phone from a nameless person.

[Strider]

I'd like to know who is posting on macpac's behalf but meh, none of my business (and probably a smart move)
Anyhow... here, the only forum 'rule' is that they should state their affiliation, nothing more. That's rule enough?

nuts

Yes that's fair from a forum perspective, but Macpac are doing themselves no favours by engaging with their customer base in this way.

[GPSGuided]

Does any one know who everyone is around here? It all a good dose of virtual and faith.

[Giddy_up]

Promulgation of false information is dangerous ground to be dabbling in!!!!!!!


"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards"

[wayno]

well yesterday i was superman, today i'm batman, still waiting to see who I am tomorrow but i can keep you posted.....
personally i think theres an issue when someone puts themselves as a rep from a company but doesnt reveal their position in the company let alone their name...
we could all start identities saying we're representing anything we like at all....

[Strider]

Promulgation of false information is dangerous ground to be dabbling in!!!!!!!

It would help if you could quote the post your comment relates to. I, for one, have no idea what you're talking about..

[photohiker]

I think he's referring to Wayne posting this topic in the first place, and indirectly the posting of the original FB page.

In fairness, the information was not known to be false at that point, and the only error is that the contracts were assumed to be NZ wide instead of just one store. That error has been corrected.

I agree that it would be good if we had a friendly MacPac rep here like we had with Cam, but that is up to MacPac...

[wayno]

Promulgation of false information is dangerous ground to be dabbling in!!!!!!!

I shall start self flagelation immediately until I am told I have repented enough for my sins....
I"m not worthy, I"m not worthy.....