Coronavirus: Petitions call for hazard pay for essential workers

Monday, 30 March 2020

Essential workers who venture out during the coronavirus lockdown deserve hazard pay, say the authors of two petitions.

Kel Smith and Joel Vicente have each started petitions on Change.org calling on the Government to establish a fund to top up wages for workers required to work over the next four weeks, including lower paid supermarket staff.

Foodstuffs, which owns New World, Pak 'n Save and Four Square supermarkets, has introduced a 10 per cent allowance for staff working during the lockdown.

Countdown has also announced a 10 per cent increase in pay for workers during the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis.

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But Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff said staff need to be protected by their employers rather than given hazard pay.

Smith's petition, which has 756 signatures, says 'these workers want be to at home keeping themselves safe alongside everybody else to combat the coronavirus pandemic circling the globe, but instead they have to carry on, putting themselves and their families at risk to ensure the country still has the necessities they need to survive during the national lockdown.'

Essential workers should be protected rather than given hazard pay says Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff.

Vicente's petition, with 169 signatures, says that as 'a gratitude of their sacrifices and hard work they must be compensated with hazardous pay which is an additional pay while working in hazardous conditions'.

Supporters of the petitions say essential workers should be rewarded with extra pay for putting their lives, and the lives of their families, at risk during the shutdown.

But Wagstaff said health and safety should not have a price tag.

'It is a long standing principle with unions that you should be safe at work,' he said.

'You shouldn't be compensated for poor health and safety practices and businesses shouldn't be able to buy your way out of good health and safety practices.'

While some employers were following good practice, there was concern for certain groups, Wagstaff said.

'There is heightened concern fo home support workers, for example.

Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff says hazard pay puts a price tag on health and safety.

'By their demographic, they are vulnerable anyway. But they are being given conflicting advice.'

People were being told to stay in their bubble on one hand but on the other home care workers were being told to go into people's homes without any personal protective equipment, Wagstaff said.

'These workers shouldn't be put at risk. The should be given the safety gear they need,' he said.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said the ministry was aware that some employers were offering additional compensation on top of current wages for workers doing essential work.

'We are aware that some employers have done this, however, additional pay cannot be a substitute for ensuring appropriate safety measures are implemented, including physical distancing and [personal protecton equipment],' the spokesman said.

There was no legal requirement for a businesses to pay 'hazard pay', but all business, including essential services, must still comply with all of their obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act, he said.