Ian Daynes

Despite the heartlessness of the system we live under, capitalism, there are nevertheless both good and bad employers. At present, no-one blames employers for making profit the deciding factor over the good of the community, no matter how much hardship and desperation some workers are living in. Nevertheless, there are good employers who have consciences and empathy for their workers.

We have had two heartening recent examples of this: in the victory of the Unite union over zero hours contracts, forcing one firm to abandon them and the government to outlaw them, and also in the Christchurch firm who decided to pay its workers a living wage of more than $19 an hour, on the basis of the struggle many of them were going through.

Funnily enough, $19 or so an hour is roughly what the minimum wage would be by now if it had kept pace with the cost of living over the last ten years or so.

A recent article in the Sunday Star-Times has shown that New Zealanders are working longer hours than ever before, forcing many of them to put their children into daycare for up to 11 hours a day. Obviously this is because of the low wages many of them earn, which is often not enough to put food on the table even when working full time or more. This is a situation John Key has promoted, and is taking steps to erode union rights and drive wages down even further, and has said he is against a living wage. Nevertheless he has backed down on zero hours contracts sensing a groundswell of public opinion against him.

Most employers, especially in big firms during wage rounds, are afraid to stick their head up and be the one to offer their employees 1% more than what other firms are paying, thinking they will come in for criticism for making less profit than they could have. Yet how much better we would think of them if they did pay a decent wage for its own sake, and how much the economy and all firms would be lifted if most

workers had more money in their pockets to spend on other things than merely surviving. So we can have nothing but admiration for the Christchurch employer who gave his workers a hefty pay hike purely on the basis of his empathising with the hardship they were going through.

I believe there is the start of a backlash against capitalism and the misery it has led to for many, in New Zealand as well as similar countries around the world. (I know Britain has just re-elected a Conservative government but it is a deeply divided country and the backlash has not yet become a majority.) When an employer starts paying a living wage just out of feelings of humanity, some sort of change has started. Many people are disillusioned with what they see around them but don’t know what to do about it.. In fact real change will only come through legislation when this public opinion is channeled into voting power, through a party like Mana, which is the total embodiment of these humane, real, anti-capitalistic values.