Businesses asked to 'do the right thing' and pay staff correctly during lockdown

Monday, 1 March 2021

Grant Robertson announces wage subsidy plan for Auckland businesses.

Unions and the businesses lobby groups are calling for employers to be responsible and pay staff during the latest alert level changes.

The Government announced on Saturday evening that Auckland would return to level 3 from 6am on Sunday for a week, and the rest of the country would shift to level 2, in response to new community cases of Covid-19.

During the previous three-day level 3 lockdown in February, optometry retailer OPSM paid staff only 25 per cent of their contracted hours and asked them to top up their pay with annual leave.

First Union organiser Tali Williams said multinational clothing chain H&M only paid its staff 60 per cent of their usual pay during that lockdown.

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First Union retail secretary Tali Williams says the community expected big retailers to pay their staff their full wages during lockdown.

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H&M and OPSM parent company Luxottica have been approached for comment.

Williams said the community expected the big retailers that had been profitable or repaid their wage subsidy to be paying their staff 100 per cent of their wages for the week.

“During the lockdowns last year everyone was unsure what would happen next. People feared the economy would crash and the businesses wouldn’t have anything, but that’s not what’s happened,” Williams said.

“People haven’t gone overseas, they have stayed home and spent their money. We need to put pressure on the big employers to the right thing.”

During the previous three-day level 3 lockdown in February, optometry retailer OPSM only paid staff 25 per cent of their contracted hours and asked them to top up their pay with annual leave.

Williams said big employers included retailers like, Kmart, H&M, Countdown and Pak ’n Save. A Warehouse spokeswoman said the company paid all staff their full wages when they were not working.

A Foodstuffs spokeswoman said it was paying staff asked to isolate or awaiting Covid-19 test results full pay.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern issued a plea to businesses to do their bit to stamp out Covid-19 on the first day of Auckland’s fourth stint at alert level 3.

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Businesses that take the wage subsidy are expected to top up the wage subsidy to at least 80 per cent of the workers’ salary if they can afford to.

Williams said workers should not be required to use their annual leave to top up their pay.

Business NZ chief executive Kirk Hope said tighter definitions for who will have to isolate after contact with a Covid case will be helpful for businesses.

Businesses repaid more than $700 million of the wage subsidy before the February lockdown.

Over the scheme’s lifetime, more than 750,000 businesses claimed about $14 billion through the scheme.

After revelations that multiple people who have Covid-19 went to work while infectious, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asked employers to ensure their staff were following the rules and restrictions.

CTU president Richard Wagstaff said the decision to isolate should not be clouded by fear of being disadvantaged or penalised for staying home.

“We need to work together so that isolation is not only the right thing to do, but also the easy thing to do. Workplaces must communicate this message so that everyone knows what’s expected of them,” Wagstaff said.

BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said an important part of managing the community outbreak was ensuring employers encouraged staff to isolate and paid them while they were doing so.

“Every business and every worker must do everything in their power to get ahead of the latest Covid outbreak. The consequences and costs of failure would be huge for all of us,” Hope said.

Dundas Street Employment Lawyers senior associate Chloe Luscombe earlier said that unless there was a clause in employee contracts dealing with shift cancellations, the workers should be paid.

Luscombe said the Employment Relations Act required shift workers to have shift cancellation provisions in their employment agreement, as well as terms that stated how much notice had to be given and the compensation if that notice was not given.

According to the law, the notice of shift cancellation in the employment agreement has to be “reasonable”, she said.

Business support available this lockdown

The Covid-19 Short-Term Absence Payment is available for employers to help pay workers who cannot work from home while they wait for a Covid-19 test result. There is a one-off payment of $350 for each eligible worker. Self-employed people are also eligible for this.
The Covid-19 Leave Support Scheme is available for businesses and self-employed people who have to pay workers needing to self-isolate and cannot work from home. The scheme is paid as a lump sum and covers two weeks per employee, up to $1176.60 for people who were working 20 hours or more per week.
The Wage Subsidy Scheme would also be available to businesses that had experienced a 40 per cent drop in revenue a 14-day period, compared to a typical fortnightly revenue period in the six weeks before the rise in alert level. Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the subsidy would be paid in a lump sum and more details on the application would be revealed on Monday.
Robertson said businesses could apply for both the wage subsidy and the Resurgence Support Payment. The payment included the lesser of a lump sum of $1500 per business, plus $400 per employee for up to 50 full-time staff or four times the actual revenue drop over a week.