KEY POINTS:
There is a way of stopping skilled workers leaving for Australia, according to unions in two industries with staff retention problems - pay people here the same as they get over there.
Pay parity with Australia is being pushed by the New Zealand Merchant Service Guild, which represents harbour pilots, and in the rail industry where there has been an exodus of locomotive drivers to the mining regions in Australia.
These are skilled workers. It costs $100,000 to train a new locomotive driver and 10 years to qualify as a harbour pilot. There are fewer than 70 people with harbour pilot licences in New Zealand, according to the guild.
Port of Tauranga this month revealed that a push for pay parity with Australia was under way, saying its pilots were seeking a 40 per cent pay rise to give them parity. The port struck a deal after mediation, the details of which are secret.
The guild was not strictly claiming that Australian rates be paid here, spokeswoman Helen McAra said.
Its original position was that something needed to be done to retain people and in talks with Port of Tauranga parity was raised in that context.
The guild has also settled with ports in Napier, New Plymouth, Nelson and Timaru and it is believed the ports buckled to large pay claims.
Wayne Butson, of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union, said his union had been fighting for pay parity with Australia for some time.
"Australia and New Zealand in the maritime and rail trades have become such a combined market that there is direct and outright competition between the two countries for labour," he said.
Toll NZ, the main rail operator, was sympathetic but didn't have the same ability to pay as port companies, he said.
The rail union estimates that the pay in Australia is consistently about 25 per cent higher than in New Zealand for its workers.
But Roger Kerr, executive director of the Business Roundtable, said pay parity with Australia was an "absurd" claim.
"Why stop at Australia, why not say it should be an 80 per cent wage increase to bring it up to an American worker or whatever."
Port of Tauranga's position was that the cost structures of a business in one country should not be based on the cost structures of another.
"It is a completely different environment over here," said chief executive Mark Cairns.
Mr Kerr said pay parity did not exist within Australia -- workers earn different amounts in different states -- so why should it be sought between Australia and New Zealand?
Wage rises should reflect improvements in productivity and currently labour productivity overall in New Zealand was virtually stagnant.
Mr Kerr said New Zealand firms should pay whatever it took to attract and retain skilled workers.
"The real issue for the port company is whether they are able to attract people at present wage rates or not. If they can then there is no basis for an increase. If they can't they will have to look at what they can do by way of wages or some other employment condition to attract and maintain them."
Ms McAra said some pilots and marine managers with pilot licences have been going to Australia in the last year and they were difficult to replace.
"You can't just take them off the street," she said.
Mr Butson said industrial action taken by track maintenance workers last year was basically about pay parity.
The rail industry had an additional problem of different pay rates for workers doing the same job. From 1992 onward Tranz Rail cut pay for new workers, creating a differential between workers.
"In locos it was particularly grim and the last bastion of it was Wellington Tranz Metro where those employed after 1992 were paid a lot less than people who were employed prior."
From July 1 they will earn the same, giving some locomotive engineers a 30 per cent pay rise.
The exodus of locomotive drivers to Australia was drying up, Mr Butson said.
He said some workers did not want to go through the Howard government's labour reforms and others were hoping that Toll NZ would invest in new locomotives.
That investment has been held up while talks on access fees to the government-owned track continue.
"Some of the Kiwis that are over there are talking about coming home again," he said.
Staff retention and the training of new locomotive drivers was one of the first issues that Australia's Toll Holdings moved to address when it took control of Tranz Rail, even though its then 50 per cent owned unit Pacific National was one of the Australian companies doing the poaching.
Toll NZ has been training new drivers and they are bonded to the company for a period.
Council of Trade Union economist Peter Conway said pay parity was a big issue in industries where the employers were the same in Australia and New Zealand, such as in banking. He estimates that overall Australian workers earn 30 per cent more than New Zealand workers.
He said New Zealand employers were happy to go on about tax cuts in Australia and how the New Zealand Government should match them but they were less happy to talk about pay rises.
The issue of pay parity was raised again this week when Australian Treasurer Peter Costello delivered a fifth budget in a row with tax cuts in it.
Business has repeatedly called for Finance Minister Michael Cullen to cut business and income taxes.
Comparisons between the two countries are further complicated by different savings regimes. In Australia it is compulsory for employers to contribute 9 per cent of pay into a savings account for workers which they can access when they turn 65.
- NZPA
