Goff looks to living wage for Auckland Council contractors

Thursday, 29 November 2018

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff is looking at a living wage of $20.55 an hour for council contractors as well as staff.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff is looking at extending the payment of a 'living wage' beyond council staff to include at least some working for contractors.

The council's three-year programme to lift all staff to a minimum of $20.55 an hour will be complete by September 2019, delivering one of Goff's 2016 election pledges.

Goff said he asked for work to be done on extending the living wage to those who work for the council via contractors.

The mayor has also signalled he expects the level of rate rises to step up in 2020 from an average 2.5 per cent, to 3.5 per cent.

* Council declines 'living wage' policy for staff

* Palmerston North City Council rejects paying staff living wage

* Christchurch City Council moves to extend living wage**

Goff outlined the two unrelated moves, and he unveiled his proposal for next year's council budget with a 2.5 per cent rate rise as previously set in the city's 10-year budget.

Auckland Council has moved the minimum it pays, in two steps starting with a new level of $18 an hour in mid 2017, rising to $19.50 from September.

Goff said it might move beyond council-employed workers, to contractors.

'Probably the sort of areas that you might expect us to begin with would be maybe the cleaning staff within the building that aren't employed by us directly, but are contracted to do the work that makes our work possible, said the mayor.

Stuff asked Goff whether it might include the bus drivers who provide the city's public transport services, for companies contracted to council-owned Auckland Transport.

'I haven't gone into the detail of that yet. What we'd be doing is, as we did with the living wage, we'd be looking at some progressive changes in those areas, said Goff.

'It's achieving the goal of equity, but doing so in a way that is fiscally responsible and that I'm living with in my budget.'

First Union which represents many of the drivers has lobbied the mayor to follow the example of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in requiring contractors to pay drivers the Living Wage.

Auckland Council's policy on paying more than the legal minimum wage of $16.50 an hour for adults, lags behind cities like Wellington and Christchurch.

Wellington City Council which employees only a fifth of the number of staff as Auckland, this year became the first council to be accredited by the Living Wage movement.

Around 450 council staff were moved up to the $20.55 an hour level, and a commitment made to extend that to contractors.

Christchurch City Council brought in a living wage for employees last year, and in September voted to extend it to council-owned companies.

The size of Auckland Council makes the numbers bigger, with the eventual cost of the policy expected to exceed the initial estimate of $7 million.

The council has more than 10,000 full and part time staff, and the latest increase gave a pay rise to 1,405 of them.

A further 883 staff who were above the living wage level had pay rises to keep their wages relative to those under the limit.

Palmerston North City and Marlborough District Council this year rejected paying council staff a minimum equal to the living wage.

Goff also said next year's budget would complete a second of his election pledges, the keep average rate rises at 2.5 per cent.

That was likely to mean 3 per cent for households as the council continues a long-standing policy to incrementally reduce the higher rate levels paid by businesses.

The council's 10-year budget lifts average rate increases to 3.5 per cent from mid-2020, beyond the three-year term to which Goff said his pledge applied.

The mayor said he expected that increase in general rates would be applied.

That would be one of the first decisions to be tackled by the mayor and councillors who were voted in at the October 2019 local body elections.