All in a day's work

MP Don Brash has called for the unemployed to be available for a day's work. TIM WATKIN reports on the people for whom all their work comes on a daily basis.

Dave lifts his cap, mops his forehead and leans on the stack of wood he and Nicholas, his workmate for the day, have been moving. "It can be hard at the best of times," he sighs.

They have been hard at work at Michael's Park school in Ellerslie since 6.15am sweeping, lifting and carting in the hot sun. But it's not today's work he's worried about, it's every day's.

Dave is a casual day labourer. He seldom knows if he will have work from one day to the next. And when you're a day labourer, a day without work means a day without pay. He's been doing it on and off for at least 10 years.

A registered nurse, he has often fitted in the casual work around his shifts. But at the moment this is his only income. He's talking about heading to the United States, but isn't sure when. It's been hard over the summer holidays, as that's when the work dries up. He's only had three working days since Christmas.

Nicholas is in New Zealand on his OE from England. The work's handy to earn money between trips, but he doesn't envy the New Zealand guys he works with. Starting at different times and working in different places, he reckons it'd be terrible if you had a family. A lot of the guys are on the dole, doing a bit of work to top up their benefit or relieve the boredom, he says. Some have lost their driver's licence and their jobs with it.

"Everybody's looking for something else, something better. It's a halfway house kind of a job."

When Don Brash, the National Party's finance spokesman, called for the abolition of the dole last week and for unemployed folk to queue for a day's work outside post offices at 8am, he conjured images of Dickensian England or Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront. Lines of the desperate and disenfranchised.

Social Services Minister Steve Maharey called Brash's plan a return to Depression-era industrial relations, while Green MP Sue Bradford said making people "beg for work" would lead to "misery and desperation".

Yet even today thousands of New Zealanders start the day not knowing if they will get chosen to work that day. Out of sight of most wage and salary earners, a day labour market still exists in this country.

There are some for whom this is a happy choice, opting to fit it around other jobs or earning a bit extra on top of shiftwork.

It's perfect for many young travellers on working-holiday visas. But most who work day-to-day and hand-to-mouth are those struggling at the bottom of the social and economic heap. They are the young and uneducated, the old and redundant, the immigrant or minority. They are typically trying to stay off benefits or top up their dole.

Nick, the third day-worker at Michael Park yesterday, says he'd rather be working full-time, but mental illness has kept him on an invalid benefit for years.

He enjoys meeting new people and getting some exercise, but can get only three days' work a week at most. Dave says the pay isn't great and "with certain companies you're getting screwed to the max, but if you say anything they can just say, 'Off you go'."

Action Workforce, who he's working for today, text him the day before if they want him. They pay at the end of each day and are one of the good ones, he says. With others, "you normally go in and wait around in the yard and then they just pick the men they want".

Maharey says at least these people, in working for labour hire companies, have the protection of contract law. The casualised workforce of the unemployed that Brash spoke of was unacceptable to almost all New Zealanders, Maharey says.

"You can't organise your family. You can't organise your finances. You can't take holidays. Historically, New Zealanders and all developed countries have rejected that, which is why Mr Brash's suggestion has been met with such repugnance.

"Surely what modern societies should be dedicated to is trying to ensure good, secure employment."

More constructive, he says, is his Government's efforts to co-ordinate with the agricultural industry so seasonal workers can move from crop to crop, getting more regular work, collective contracts and even training.

Despite New Zealand's low unemployment levels, our casual labour force is of increasing concern to unions and the Government. There are no statistics on numbers in casual day labour.

The closest Government statistics come is with the 108,600 who label themselves "under-employed", or wanting more work than they have, in the household labour survey. This would cover many day labourers who are getting work on odd days and want more. However, it would also cover part-timers who want to go full-time and those who want a few extra hours a week.

On the other hand, it doesn't cover the day casuals who might be satisfied with the hours they're working, even if they're not satisfied with their pay and conditions.

Concerned at the Government's statistical blindness, Maharey says the Department of Labour has just begun research into those who work in this dark corner of the economy.

At the same time, the Amalgamated Workers' Union (AWU), which represents blue collar workers, is planning a campaign to shame labour hire firms who aren't doing right by their labour pool.

Day labourers working through hire firms have an employment contract with that firm, which then hires them out to clients. They might be on a building site one day, picking apples the next and in a storeroom the day after. Or they might get nothing.

"They turn up at dawn, sit there for two or three hours and they don't know if they're going to get a job that day and they don't get paid while they wait," says Phil Graham, an AWU organiser. "I've just had a father and son in. They've been turning up at a labour hire company for two weeks and only had one day's work. But that's what it's like with labour hire companies ... The way I see it, these are modern-day slave labour outlets."

Although some firms have tried to deny workers holiday pay, most pay an hourly rate with holiday pay included. Graham says workers can expect anywhere between $8 and $12 an hour, with $9 - $8.49 plus 51c holiday pay - fairly typical. The companies get paid between $14 and $17 an hour, he says. "But it doesn't matter what the charge-out rate is, [the workers] get the same money."

And while Maharey points to the protection of contract law, day labourers don't receive most of the conditions wage or salary workers assume as of right. That applies to those who might have worked for a hire firm every week for five years. They don't get sick pay, redundancy, parental leave, incremental pay increases, allowances, clothing or equipment or pay for statutory holidays. The AWU is making holiday pay part of their campaign, arguing that labour hire companies should pay contracted staff.

What's more, adds Terry Ryan of the Maritime Union of New Zealand, without permanent work, these people can't get a bank loan and are seldom able to get hire purchase. He's seen casualisation grow markedly on the wharves since the late 80s and he despairs. "We see it as a poverty trap."

Yet it's always going to be a pivotal part of the labour market, says Mike Moore, the director of Action Workforce. His Yellow Pages advertisement is a red rag to the unions. Under the title "Consider the Benefits", the ad promises "no holiday pay, sick pay, ACC levies. No redundancy. No downtime. You only pay for productivity."

While Moore concedes some use labour hire firms to get around paying staff properly, others have genuine needs. They might be starting out and worry about taking on too many staff, or need only seasonal workers. Some just need a guy to drive a truck to cover for an employee who's thrown a sickie. As a former union member and now a small business-owner, he can see both sides of the coin.

"Companies will always need short-term bursts of labour."

Moore, frank and level-headed, pays $10 an hour after tax and including holiday pay. He adds another $1 an hour if the worker has his or her own car, and another $1 for every person they can pick up and take home. He has 200 people on his books, but the success rate for placing workers is "quite low, only about 30 a day working".

Even when work is available, Moore says his is not an easy business. Some workers can't afford petrol for their cars or they don't have a warrant. Some just don't have the work ethic and make excuses. Some can't take on whole-week work because they'll lose their dole.

Some have literacy or numeracy problems, while others can't read maps and never turn up. They've even dropped guys at the door and had them disappear without reporting for work.

Moore says half the guys "have slipped through the gaps in the education system" and are probably incapable of holding down full-time work. Some he knows are living in boarding or halfway houses and desperately need the money, "but they sure don't act like it. They just don't make an effort". He sighs. "It's just sad."