Raise the Bar: Everything you need to know about the wage subsidy

Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:

In this legal blog we outline some of the employer obligations in relation to the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme and provide an update on the latest advice and proposed changes to the Scheme as of Friday 27 March 2020:

All over Aotearoa, employers have fired workers’ at will, proposed redundancies, or forced employee’s to take annual leave during the lockdown which is causing serious economic hardship for many workers. Newsflash: Your employer can’t just fire you or make you redundant during this time! They MUST exhaust all avenues such as applying for the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme before making you redundant or firing you. If  your employer does not exhaust all avenues, you are likely in a good position to file with the Employment Relations Authority and bring a Personal Grievance proceedings against your employer for unfair dismissal and unfair disadvantage.

Your employer CANNOT force you to use up your annual leave / 8% holiday pay instead of paying you the wage subsidy. If they do this, they are breaching the Holidays Act 2003 and your basic employment entitlements. Employment law advocate Ashleigh Fechney told RNZ:

‘Absolutely not. Annual leave has to be taken by agreement. She said some contracts may contain clauses which say people can be asked to go on leave if they have large balances, but this also has to be done with reasonable warning and some discussion.’

Your employer must also make reasonable endeavours to keep paying you, including negotiating in good faith if they can only pay 80% of your wages. 80% of your normal wages is the lowest amount they should be paying you. They are obligated to pay you 100% of your wages if they are able to do so. 

Whatever your normal wages, you ought to be receiving at least the full value of the wage subsidy. 

The subsidy is $585.80 per week for a full time employee (20 hrs or more) or $350.00 per week for a part time employee (less than 20 hrs). Employers will receive a payment of $7,029.60 for a full time employee and $4,200 for a part time employee. This will be paid to employers in a single lump sum and should be passed onto their employees after tax is deducted, preferably as a single lump sum although could be distributed equally over the intended 12 week period.

At Raise the Bar, we are getting countless reports of employer’s withholding all or some of the wage subsidy which breaches the declaration they agreed to when they applied for the subsidy. If your employer is doing this, they open themselves up to the risk of prosecution for fraud. They would also likely have breached their legal duty of good faith. Employees could have a claim for arrears of wages as per the Employment Relations Act 2000. Please email us at raisethebarcampaign@gmail.com if you’d like us to report your employer on your behalf.

Now, onto the updates about the wage subsidy following the Friday 27 March 2020 Prime Ministerial Press Conference: 

– The 14-day self-isolation sick leave scheme is being folded into the Wage Subsidy scheme to prevent employers from double dipping.

– A separate sick leave provision scheme will be set up soon for essential workers who cannot work, especially those workers over 70 or who have health conditions. The Government has expressed that these workers should not be expected to leave their homes for work during the lockdown. 

– Employees ought to be receiving at least 80% of their normal wages. However, all workers must receive AT LEAST the full value of the subsidy from their employer.

– The Government has confirmed that employees should not be compelled to use their leave instead of using the subsidy.

– Employers cannot fire or make redundant any employees while they are receiving the scheme.

– Employers’ names who are receiving the Scheme will soon be made public.

– The Government wants to hear from anyone who believes their employer is receiving the Wage Subsidy but not passing this on to their staff. 

-Work and Income has also recently advised that employers can apply for their casual workers to receive the wage subsidy. 

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If you would like further support please get in touch with Raise the Bar:

E: raisethebarcampaign@gmail.com

FB: @raisethebarnz and we have also set up a hospo support group on FB, Aotearoa Hospitality Workers’ Helping Each Other Through Covid-19

*Chloe Ann-King, is a noted workers and welfare rights advocate and activist who founded Raise the Bar: your hospo campaign, in 2016. She has also written extensively about the impacts of low waged and precarious work in Aotearoa and around the world. Previously she volunteered extensively with Unions in both Aotearoa and Australia and last year she studied for a Post Grad Cert in Human Rights, which expanded her legal knowledge.

*Toby Cooper is legally trained and has previously worked as an employment lawyer in one of Aotearoa’s top boutique employment firms. He’s currently volunteering at Community Law and with Raise the Bar, and has a passion for supporting low waged workers by empowering them with legal knowledge and understanding.

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If you would like to support Raise the Bar, you can donate via:

• PayPal: king.chloe@gmail.com (we are working on setting up a Raise the Bar PayPal asap)
• Patreon
• Direct Bank Account: MISS C A KING, 12-3040-0580277-01

All donations go towards maintaining Raise the Bar, we are also hoping to set up funds for hospo workers who need a koha for food, rent and other necessities.

Please get in touch for specific advice.

 

Raise the Bar: 10 questions to ask your employer proposing redundancy

Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being made redundant because of Covid-19 and the looming recession. In response I and Raise the Bar’s legal advocate Toby Cooper, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights as hospo workers. However these blogs can be used by any worker in any industry. Toby has written our second one: 

1) What is the timeframe to provide feedback to your proposal?

2) What are the specific business reasons underlying this particular proposal? 3) Can you please provide me with the financial records and budget information which you are relying on? 4) Do you qualify for the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme? If so, how does this affect the business’ financial position?

5) Have you considered other options, such as redeployment, reduced hours (including reducing hours for all staff, which could minimise the number of staff needing to be made redundant), paid or unpaid leave?

6) Have you considered other changes to the business model in order to improve the business’ financial position, such as a shift to food delivery?

7) If several people all have the same job title: Why are the others not being made redundant, especially since I have more expertise than my colleagues / I have worked here longer / I work more hours each week?

8) Have you considered other options, such as redeployment, reduced hours (including reducing hours for all staff, which could minimise the number of staff needing to be made redundant), reduced hourly rates (which again could include other staff) paid or unpaid leave? Have you explored opportunities for up-skilling or training staff into new areas in order to minimise redundancies? Have you explored opportunities for up-skilling or training staff into new areas in order to minimise redundancies?

9) Are you willing to provide me with any financial support, outplacement (i.e.: training for future jobs the employee could have elsewhere), or a written and verbal employment reference to help me into future work?

10) Can I be paid out my notice period (and any entitlement to redundancy compensation – check your contract!) so that I can focus on finding other work?

Here is some extra information if you were working out your notice and then your employer made you redundant:

Let’s say an employee was made redundant a week ago and is now either working out their two week notice period or being paid out their two week notice. If they are still within their contractual notice period, which they would be, I would argue that since they are still technically employees of the business, their employer should retract the decision to make them redundant and should instead seek to access the Wage Subsidy on their behalf.

The priority is that employees need to get onto the phone with their employers now and protect their employmentFor anyone already made redundant, there’s no harm in them reaching out to their former employer and asking about pay.

If you would like further support please get in touch with Raise the Bar:

E: raisethebarcampaign@gmail.com

FB: @raisethebarnz and we have also set up a hospo support group on FB, Aotearoa Hospitality Workers’ Helping Each Other Through Covid-19

*Chloe Ann-King, is a noted workers and welfare rights advocate and activist who founded Raise the Bar: your hospo campaign, in 2016. She has also written extensively about the impacts of low waged and precarious work in Aotearoa and around the world. Previously she volunteered extensively with Unions in both Aotearoa and Australia and last year she studied for a Post Grad Cert in Human Rights, which expanded her legal knowledge.

*Toby Cooper is legally trained and has previously worked as an employment lawyer in one of Aotearoa’s top boutique employment firms. He’s currently volunteering at Community Law and with Raise the Bar, and has a passion for supporting low waged workers by empowering them with legal knowledge and understanding.

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If you would like to support Raise the Bar, you can donate via:

• PayPal: king.chloe@gmail.com (we are working on setting up a Raise the Bar PayPal asap)
• Patreon
• Direct Bank Account: MISS C A KING, 12-3040-0580277-01

All donations go towards maintaining Raise the Bar, we are also hoping to set up funds for hospo workers who need a koha for food, rent and other necessities.

Raise the Bar: hospitality workers & wage subsidy entitlements

Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being made redundant because of Covid-19 and the looming recession. In response I and Raise the Bar’s legal advocate Toby Cooper, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights as hospo workers. However these blogs can be used by any worker in any industry. Toby has written our first one: 

All restaurants, bars, and cafes will close within the next 48 hours. This includes takeaway services. In 48 hours time, NZ will be at Level 4 for the next 4 weeks.

The $150,000 maximum on the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy package has now been removed. This means that, for the next 12 weeks, any employer that can show a 30% loss in business will be entitled to receive payments for every single employee for the next 12 weeks. This means that no employees should be made redundant (unless their employer does not meet that 30% loss threshold). Any business entitled to the Wage Subsidy package will be able to keep on all its employees for the next 12 weeks (although these employees may receive slightly less than usual but should be receiving at least 80% of their regular pay in total).

If your business is entitled to this but you are being made redundant, the first thing to do is to urgently contact your employer to try and sort things out directly. You may have legal grounds for a personal grievance claim if you are dismissed by an employer entitled to this package, but would need to complain in writing to the employer within 90 days of redundancy.

Let’s say an employee was made redundant a week ago and is now either working out their two week notice period or being paid out their two week notice. If they are still within their contractual notice period, which they would be, I would argue that since they are still technically employees of the business, their employer should retract the decision to make them redundant and should instead seek to access the Wage Subsidy on their behalf. If an employee’s notice period has expired, then they are unfortunately not helped here.

If you would like further support, please get in touch with Raise the Bar:

E: raisethebarcampaign@gmail.com

FB: @raisethebarnz and we have also set up a hospo support group on FB, Aotearoa Hospitality Workers’ Helping Each Other Through Covid-19

*Chloe Ann-King, is a noted workers and welfare rights advocate and activist who founded Raise the Bar: your hospo campaign, in 2016. She has also written extensively about the impacts of low waged and precarious work in Aotearoa and around the world. Previously she volunteered extensively with Unions in both Aotearoa and Australia and last year she studied for a Post Grad Cert in Human Rights, which expanded her legal knowledge.

*Toby Cooper is legally trained and has previously worked as an employment lawyer in one of Aotearoa’s top boutique employment firms. He’s currently volunteering at Community Law and with Raise the Bar, and has a passion for supporting low waged workers by empowering them with legal knowledge and understanding.

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If you would like to support Raise the Bar, you can donate via:

• PayPal: king.chloe@gmail.com (we are working on setting up a Raise the Bar PayPal asap)
• Patreon
• Direct Bank Account: MISS C A KING, 12-3040-0580277-01

All donations go towards maintaining Raise the Bar, we are also hoping to set up funds for hospo workers who need a koha for food, rent and other necessities.

 

 

I just had my benefit suspended during a fucking pandemic

I am a member of the working poor and so still need state welfare to make rent. So I had booked an appointment for yesterday with my caseworker at Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) to apply for a transition to work grant. However the current health advice in New Zealand around coronavirus (COVID-19) caused me to skip the appointment, and follow all the instructions to avoid public transport and crowds. This is because my current work at a bar puts me at higher risk of contracting coronavirus because I am constantly serving people and surrounded by crowds of customers. I often have to touch customers when I am running food and picking up glasses, so I am constantly having to go against official health advice about CoronaVirus. I have been trying my best to avoid any other situations where I will be near or in crowds to both reduce my chances of either becoming a carrier, or transmitting the virus if I already am. I figured that given the appointment was not mandatory, because it had absolutely nothing to do with my ‘looking for work obligations’, my caseworker wouldn’t be so heartless as to cut me off. 

HOW. WRONG. I. WAS.

I woke up today with a feeling of dread. I thought my caseworker might have sanctioned my benefit by half (which usually happens when you miss one appointment). But it was worse than I thought. She went full-blown authoritarian asshole, and completely suspended it. I called her twice, and emailed – no answer. She finally responded, saying she suspended my benefit because I had a job and she didn’t want me to get into more debt if WINZ overpaid me. In 15 years of being on and off welfare, this has never been standard WINZ policy in my experience. I previously reported my wages weekly and my benefit gets adjusted against the index, and I’ve never had my benefit suspended before when I’ve landed a job. Considering my caseworkers know’s the job is casual and less than 30 hours a week, suspending my benefit makes no sense. She didn’t even send me an email to tell me she had decided the best course of action during this time would be to suspend my benefit. During a worldwide pandemic. That has killed thousands. And is causing our next financial crash.

The vast majority of low waged and precarious workers like me, haven’t recovered from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and we still feel the consequences to this day. I can’t even bear to think about the fresh hell this pandemic and following economic crisis is gonna be like for workers like me. We will be fired at will, or have our shifts cut by employers who don’t give any shits about our personal and economic well-being during the best of times. 

The reality is that WINZ and their caseworkers still expect people to come in for appointments (including the immuno-compromised). If people don’t attend they risk having sanctions applied that cut or completely suspend their benefits. Exactly like what has happened to me. It’s vital to point out that many people on welfare have serious and life threatening illnesses which include cancer, Crohn’s, asthma and other respiratory problems… I could go on. For these people during the coronavirus pandemic, WINZ appointments could literally be a game of Russian roulette but WINZ logic only offers them the choice of attending appointments or starving.

Our coalition government said they would take swift, decisive and compassionate action in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Our government has, in many ways, delivered on that promise because today they announced a rescue package in response to CoronaVirus. It’s the biggest stimulus package announced globally, so far. But some of the package is based on trickle-down economics in my humble opinion. The lion’s share of the $12.1 billion rescue package is going to business owners who will take a cut of $8.7 billion. I guess the magic thinking is that somehow the money will trickle down into pockets of workers like me. 

When in the fuck has that ever happened? Never. That’s when. 

We’ll have to wait and see if the package reduces the rates of job loss and cut shifts in precarious industries such as hospitality and helps get us back to normal when the time comes. Thing is my ‘normal’ is employers paying me fuck all while offering me no guarantee of hours or a job one week til the next. My ‘normal’ sucks. Money has also been set aside for people on welfare but that extra cash ($25 a week) means piss all to people like me who get their benefits suspended for absolutely no real reason. It also took a pandemic for the government to increase core benefits to the bare minimum. I know I sound cynical but I feel this way for a reason. I barely survived the last financial crash. I don’t know how I’ll survive another one. I’m exhausted.  

Our systems are set up to punish poor people, and they continue to do so even during a pandemic. We should always be showing each other aroha, compassion, and solidarity but ESPECIALLY in times like these. We need to be better than this.

 

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Kia ora my Name is Chloe Ann-King and I am a noted writer and workers rights advocate who fights for the rights of hospitality workers and people on welfare. All the mahi I undertake is volunteer and mostly unpaid. If you’d like to support my mahi/learn more about who I am and what I do please check out my patreon and twitter or you can directly donate to me via Paypal: king.chloe@gmail.com or bank account: Miss C A KING 12-3040-0580277-01