Pinoy NZ Life Dec 18

04 WORKERS’ RIGHTS VOL 2 NO 2 | www.pinoynzlife.nz Facebook: Pinoy NZ Life | email: filipinonews@xtra.co.nz | Mob: 027 495 8477
www.migrantnews.nz : New Zealand’s first Migrant newspaper. Published since 1991.
Pinoy ELE Workers
on site at Legacy
Construction
Project - Auckland
“Kapamilya Tawag Na!”
027 641 9183
Know your
employment rights
Employment New
Zealand has produced
a useful leaflet in several
languages, including
Tagalog, which details
an overview of some
key employment rights.
Some of the key
points include the fact
that it is illegal for your
employer to make you
keep your passport
with them.
And it is illegal for
your employer to ask
you to pay them for
providing you with
your job.
You must be given a
written employment
agreement (contract).
You must be paid at
least the minimum
wage if you are 16
years or older.
You are entitled to 11
public holidays off
work on pay if they are
days you would normally
work.
You are entitled to 4
weeks paid annual holiday
per year after 12
months employment.
You have the right to
ask your employer for
details of your time
worked, leave and holiday
entitlement.
You are entitled to
breaks, for example for
two suitable paid rest
breaks and one unpaid
meal break when you
work more than 8
hours in one day.
You have the right to
be treated fairly if you
lose your job through
being fired or made
redundant.
You have the right to
be protected from unlawful
discrimination
based on your age, ethnicity,
sex or religious
beliefs.
You are entitled to
work in a safe workplace
with proper
training, supervision
and equipment.
Check out the Employment
New Zealand
website for more
details: www.employment.govt.
nz or phone:
0800 20 90 20.
Translation service is
available in 40+ languages.
continued from page 3
Filipino migrant
exploitation report
support their families and
sustain their own needs as
they live and work in New
Zealand.
As if their earnings were
not already squeezed
enough, their conundrum is
made worse if they availed
themselves of dubious
'Pastoral Care' services,
which charge them unjustifiable
fees for practical services.
These include housing,
vehicle use and driver’s
license assessment. Sometimes
the visa consulting
firms these migrant workers
used directed them to the
Pastoral Care companies
themselves.
The accommodation fee
demanded by the Pastoral
Care companies was reported
to be as high as $150 per
week, which housed the
client in a four-bedroom
house with as many as 20
people sharing the accommodation.
Each inhabitant
would be placed in a bedroom
with three or four other
people, despite being told
that their payment covered
the entire room.
MacLennan’s findings
also reported instances of
Pastoral
Care companies
charging
$40 for vehicle
use,
regardless
if the
migrant
client had
used it or
not. Respondents also
revealed paying $150 for a
driving assessment test,
despite already having
licenses themselves and only
needing to have them converted
into a New Zealandapproved
equivalent.
The scale of the exploitation
was appalling; many
migrant workers saw their
wages deducted by as much
as $400 a week for three
months to cover these miscellaneous
and unfair
charges.
The deductions, combined
with the remittances they
sent back home, left them
with as little as $10 a week
to cover their living costs,
relying on the goodwill of
charity groups to get by.
Several employers were
also surveyed as part of the
report and their prevailing
view of Filipino migrant
workers was that they were
“subservient” and “are not
used to answering back (to
employers)”. This passivity
perhaps contributes to their
vulnerability.
The high levels of debt
most of these workers have,
including the burden of having
to support a family back
home, makes them desperate
enough to tolerate exploitation.
A support worker interviewed
in the report told
MacLennan that Filipino
workers: “feel that if they
complain they may lose their
jobs and be kicked out of the
country and they have to
return with this debt which
they have no way of paying.”
Their desperation only
emboldens exploitative employers
to take advantage of
them, being aware of their
need for an income – regardless
of how meagre.
The report by MacLennan
and E tu presented several
recommendations to the
government to take action,
including tighter regulations
on visa consulting agencies
and on Pastoral Care services.
A Cabinet minister present
at the presentation of the
report, the Hon. Jenny
Salesa, informed the attendees
that the government
already had a proposed
action plan to respond to the
exploitation which it will
unveil in the near future.
What makes the report significant
is that it demonstrates
the extent of the
abuse; it was once thought
that migrant exploitation
was perpetrated by “a few
bad apples”. This report
sheds light on the fact that
the problem has become normalized
in New Zealand;
how the desperation of
migrant workers to support
their dependents and to
repay their debts makes
them willing victims to such
injustices.
Therefore, the response
the government plans to
make should not just tackle
the institutional aspect of the
problem, but should also tap
into the cultural element of
it: making migrant workers
aware of their rights,
empowering them to
demand these rights and
educating them on the protection
New Zealand laws
afford them.