The importance of work to New Zealanders as a source of well-being beyond an economic transaction became starkly clear during the course of the conversations. This insight came when participants talked about what they liked about their work and when people talked about the emotional and social impact of redundancy, retirement and trying to enter or re-enter the workforce. While income sufficiency is important, work clearly provides more than a pay- cheque. This was illustrated, for example, by the wall art at Matahiwi Marae in Hawke’s Bay which told of the long-term impact of the closure of the Whakatu meatworks on community well-being.
Employers are currently caught between ensuring essential skills are retained in anticipation of the economic recovery and staying economically viable. We heard many employers expressing their reluctance to take a chance on new staff as the economy recovered. Employers in some sectors are nervous about hiring and are seeking alternative ways of ensuring sufficient labour to make their business profitable or stable. Strategies include doing more work themselves, expanding the range of work required of employees, casualising jobs using variations of temporary, short-term, casual and seasonal employment and adopting more conservative hiring practices.
We observed that many employers were less willing to give people a go, because they were keen to operate a lean labour force. In particular this appears to be impacting on younger people and those with disabilities. A Nelson participant who ran a disability support agency said, “When there was low unemployment and people were struggling to fill jobs, employers were opening their eyes to possibilities in the labour market (of employing people with disabilities). The pressure is off now. The triple bottom line has gone.” The triple bottom line approach involving ‘people, planet and profit’ recognised social and environmental as well as economic impacts of business. A support worker in Whakatane told us about a young disabled woman who had recently lost her part-time job. The consequences for her and the people around her were profound. Her distress at the loss of meaningful employment and the high level of anxiety this provoked meant that she required a much higher level of support than she had required previously.
Globally, the prospect of a “jobless recovery” has been flagged. Those who are frequently marginalised in the labour market, such as people with disabilities and young people with minimal academic qualifications, are struggling to gain employment at the moment, particularly in the unskilled or semi-skilled labour market.
Many of the vulnerable and disadvantaged people who lose jobs or are unemployed and receive social security assistance want both to get back to work as soon as possible, and to reduce their dependency on benefits. It is the unavailability of suitable, decent work and the availability of affordable child-care where they live that relentlessly limits their participation in the workforce.
The Commission was struck by the vulnerability of provincial New Zealand to layoffs in dominant industries. The loss of several hundred jobs from one company or one industry in smaller centres has a much more significant impact on the whole community than is the case in urban New Zealand. This was described as an “eco-system” approach in Hawke’s Bay. “If an anchor company falls over, it is not 100 jobs that go but 400. If you map the supply chain that supports the anchor company, you see how inter-dependent businesses are.” In situations where large employers employ several generations, families often have the same employer and a company closure puts all the income earners of a family out of work.
In areas such as Northland, a worker may be the breadwinner for the extended family and job loss will impact on more than one household. “Māori workers are more likely to be supporting two or three families. A loss of income for these people would have a wide-reaching impact.”
Secondly, the primary industry of a town is supported by a number of service industries or businesses, so job losses have a ripple effect throughout the community. And thirdly, alternative work is harder to come by and so people either start to move away or struggle to make ends meet on a benefit.
In the Rodney district, the local council and Irwin’s Tools employed the most staff. The recession has resulted in the loss of 105 jobs from Irwin’s Tools and 40 jobs from another employer. This amounted to an estimated $8m loss from the local economy. We were told that commercial construction had dried up and business confidence was low. According to the Rodney Economic Development Trust, “three out of five employers are finding it hard to do business at this time and too many small businesses are not taking a longer-term view to keep themselves safe in tough economic times”.
A large employer involved in laying off staff had the following advice for others:
The lack of wider community awareness and subsequent planning about the potential for major company layoffs is an issue in many regions. Job creation schemes and regional initiatives to assist people into work varied from region to region and depended on precarious funding. Some authorities have taken a regional approach to supporting job retention and growth, others were less active. For example, programmes developed by Hastings District Council, in conjunction with the local Work and Income office, have enabled a number of “hard-to-place” youth to get into short-term jobs that provide a positive work experience, build confidence, work skills and provide labour for much-needed community projects. Critically the human resource infrastructure for the community projects was provided by the council. Many of these schemes, even examples of exemplary good practice, appear to be operating in isolation from one another.
We also heard that regional and sub-regional employment strategies were hampered by the lack of labour force data and trend analysis at a sufficiently disaggregated level for planning purposes. For example, in the Manawatu region the two major cities, Palmerston North and Wanganui, have quite distinct labour market characteristics but are conflated in regional statistics.
During the course of the project the Commission visited “business enterprises” in Invercargill and Dunedin which provide people with disabilities employment, who, it is argued, would be unable to compete for work in the open labour market. We also heard from disability advocacy groups about the very low rate of pay received by some disabled workers (as low as 15c an hour). They believe that while business enterprises which operated like sheltered workshops remained an option, supported work opportunities in the open labour market were not being fully implemented.
Business enterprises came into being after the repeal, in 2007, of the Disabled Persons Employment Promotions (DPEP) Act 1960, which resulted in the closure of sheltered workshops. In reality, people receiving a wage below the minimum have their income supplemented by a social welfare benefit. Applications are made for minimum wage exemptions on behalf of individuals who undertake a productivity assessment under the jurisdiction of the Department of Labour.
The employment of people with disabilities at rates below the minimum wage is controversial. The Commission heard all sides of the argument – from employers and employees, from business enterprises and from disability advocacy groups. Opponents of the exemption system say that it is discriminatory and alternate processes that support people with disabilities to work in the open labour market are necessary. Proponents argue that workers in business enterprises would not otherwise be employed and that working supports social inclusion and promotes well-being.
Employees from a business enterprise told us, “work gives you something to get up for”, “there’s no judgement here” and “it doesn’t matter what kind of disability you have, you feel safe.” A disability advocate from Disabled Persons Assembly told us “Repeal of the DPEP Act was seen as the answer but still discrimination happens. There’s an expectation that people can and do work in the community but the support is not available.”