New Zealand

2

Repeated violations of rights

Same as last year

Workers' rights violations

Right to collective bargaining

In New Zealand, on 22 April 2021, NZ Bus notified Wellington bus drivers that they would be locked out from their jobs unless the drivers agreed to cut their pay and conditions of employment and accept an inferior employment agreement. The announcement of the lockout came after months of bitter negotiations over a new collective agreement. NZ Bus had refused an offer by the Wellington Regional Council to fund a living wage adjustment, because they wanted to reduce conditions of employment. This infringement of labour rights was strongly denounced by both the president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) and the transport minister, who urged the company to withdraw the notice.

Right to collective bargaining

In New Zealand, the H&M clothing chain suspended fourteen workers on 24 April 2021, during the negotiation of a new collective agreement on pay, in an anti-union move punishing them for trying to achieve the living wage. In 2019 already, unionised workers at H&M were locked out after wearing stickers in stores calling for fair pay.

Workers’ rights in law

All countries