KEY POINTS:
The minimum wage increases by a dollar an hour in a couple of weeks. That will make a big difference to many thousands of workers.
The irony of the minimum wage is that the many more thousands of workers who in the past have been paid over the minimum wage are now on it. This has resulted in many minimum-wage employers finding it difficult to recruit workers.
The head of New Zealand Hotel Council (made up of all the big hotel chains) made a plea to the Government this week to ease immigration restrictions so they can import overseas workers into the large tourist hotels. They also launched a website listing vacancies for potential employees who were interested in a career in tourism and hospitality.
When I looked on the site, only one of the 70 listed vacancies stated the wage. The reason for this is simple: half the "back-of-house" and food and beverage staff are paid the minimum wage or within $2 an hour of it. Even highly skilled chefs and front-office managerial roles are lucky to be paid more than the average wage. For that, they work long hours, including weekends and shift work. There are no overtime rates, nor any allowances paid.
It's always been a difficult industry for workers to earn a decent wage in and it has got worse.
In the past few weeks, there has been a surge of hotel wildcat strikes of employees against their foreign masters. Hotel workers may work in luxurious surroundings but they are paid poverty wages. Two worlds exist and much of what our overseas and business guests see is just an illusion. The pristine hotel rooms appear as if no one has been there before, but moments earlier a housekeeper has been under enormous pressure to make it spotless.
An average room in Auckland goes for $300 a night, but the woman (and they're almost always women) who works frantically for 20 minutes getting it ready for the next guest is paid the equivalent of $5 a room. These workers are given a number of rooms that must be completed within a set number of hours and if the worker is unable to finish, there is either an expectation that she will finish the tasks in her own time or that she will be "counselled" for her lack of effort. This puts the workers under intolerable stress and many of them forgo their tea breaks and lunch breaks in order to meet their employer's requirements.
Twenty years ago, a housekeeper was expected to do between 12 and 14 rooms in an eight-hour shift. Now the norm is that they will do between 16 and 24 rooms. There are now no guaranteed hours of work. In real terms, their wages have dropped in the same period by 25 per cent. Over the past two months, as anyone will tell you, Auckland's largest hotels have had an almost 100 per cent occupancy. The overseas owners of our large hotels have been making a fortune on the backs of the New Zealand workers.
Beyond the palatial and beautiful foyers is a "back-of-house" that is often run-down and grimy. The hotel owners, mainly based in Singapore, Hong Kong and London, show little regard for the people who are the backbone of the industry - the cleaners, the laundry and kitchen staff.
Almost all these workers are employed as part-timers and are rostered in whatever erratic pattern suits the hotel. How much money will be in next week's pay packet is uncertain. How people survive is difficult to fathom. It is common for housekeeping staff to ask their employer for a loan before payday so that they can pay their bus fare to get home from work.
Many of these workers survive by doing two jobs. They work in the hotel from 7am until finish and then clean office buildings in the evening. This is necessary as when hotels have quieter patches they may not get any work in a week or may have their hours dramatically reduced. It is not uncommon for these workers to go to loan sharks and pawn their household appliances to tide them over. This week a housekeeper told me she was paying 35 per cent interest on short-term loans so she has enough to eat.
Hotel managers, in private, accept that the wages are derisory but are powerless to pay more because of directives from their overseas owners. The Singaporean owners of the Stamford Plaza, for example, have offered their workers a zero increase in their wages. At the same time, they are spending $200 million building luxury apartments on top of the hotel. They are tipped to make, according to a real estate agent I know, at least $100 million clear profit.
New Zealanders are waking up to the unfair treatment of these workers. The workers on the hotel picket lines tell me that eight of out 10 cars that pass toot and give them the thumbs-up. Even the international guests staying in the hotels come out to support them. Housekeeping staff tell me that on occasion when their plight is known to the guests, hundreds of dollars are left for them as tips.
So when we hear from the local representatives of the overseas owners pleading for the Government to relax immigration laws or trying to persuade workers that there is a career available in the tourism and hospitality industry, they need to be honest about it. The wages and conditions in this industry are a disgrace and the profiteering and pillage by the owners is just blatant greed. These overseas owners need to understand they are guests in our country and they must pay their workers a living wage.
