Canterbury's ratepayer-funded tourism body backtracks on living wage opposition

Thursday, 12 September 2019

A promotional video of Christchurch, dubbed the City of Exploration, which was launched in February 2019.

Christchurch visitor centre staff are taking home fatter pay cheques after moving to the living wage, despite their boss arguing against it 17 months earlier.

ChristchurchNZ general manager Boyd Warren confirmed that from July 1 all 13 i-Site staff were paid the living wage of $21.15 or higher.

The ratepayer-funded tourism and economic development organisation employs 75 full-time staff, including 12 who earn between $100,000 to $325,000.

Christchurch i-Site visitor centre staff have been paid the living wage since July 1, after a pay review.

In June last year, the city council asked all council-controlled Organisations (CCOs) to implement the living wage for direct employees over a three-year period.

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ChristchurchNZ boss Joanna Norris, whose salary is $325,000, warned it would cost the organisation $40,000 to $50,000, or the equivalent of one full-time employee, to pay the living wage.

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This was despite some bleak forecasts by CCOs about the negative impacts on business, including a February 2018 letter to the council from ChristchurchNZ chief executive Joanna Norris.

The feedback was discussed in a June 14 public excluded meeting, but released to Stuff this week.

Norris, whose salary is $325,000, warned it would cost the organisation $40,000 to $50,000, or the equivalent of one full-time employee.

Lifting some employees' pay without adjusting others could hamper productivity through 'disengagement or loss of staff'.

Cuts in i-Site visitor centre staff would likely be needed if the policy was adopted, Norris said.

ChristchurchNZ's business partners in the hospitality and tourism industry could be unfairly disadvantaged, she said.

She anticipated further negative consequences if contractors were required to adopt the policy.

'The lower wage nature of the tourism and event delivery industries would suggest … such a policy may have significant impact on business sustainability and consequential negative impacts to the economic growth of Christchurch.'

Norris cautioned hospitality and tourism businesses could pass on costs to customers and give the city a reputation as too expensive.

This would make it difficult for the organisation to 'achieve growth in visitor numbers as set out in the visitor strategy'.

The council deferred a decision about inclusion of the living wage in council contracts until the Local Government (Community Wellbeing) Amendment Bill had gone through Parliament.

Warren said the decision to adopt the living wage for direct employees was not made in response to the council's request.

'As far as I'm aware it's been the ambition to do so for as long as I've been here, which is almost a year.'

He said a lot had changed since Norris wrote the letter, including the 'remuneration landscape'.

'Lots of jobs have been changed … teams have been restructured. So it's very much a different landscape now and there's also a lot more aspiration to be a better employer, probably.'

Warren said 'leadership' was behind the change and getting the processes in place to make it happen.

'If you have the aspiration to do the right thing then it can take a bit of time to set your business up to do it.'

No cuts had been made to the i-Site team to achieve the living wage policy.

Warren was not sure if there had been a reduction in staff numbers across the organisation, but there had been changes.

Some roles had been re-scoped and some disestablished, as well as new roles created and re-deployments, he said.