The Right Way
Anything I said about staying at the orchard long-term is hereby taken back. It's clear to me that the owners place practically no value in individual workers. All they're concerned about is having a platoon of people who are desperate to work that they can swindle as they see fit to achieve their dark goals of having an absolutely continuous, tsunamatic cashflow. I gave them the benefit of the doubt when I found they hadn't paid me time and a half for Easter Monday, as they are legally entitled to do. I put it down to human error and felt confident that they would reimburse me soon enough. But it turns out that the company policy is not to pay anybody time and a half at all, regardless of whether it is the law.
When I confronted the owners about it, first they said they consider me a casual worker and as such I am "not actually entitled to time and a half." I quickly despatched that argument by citing that it is required by law that all workers who work on a public holiday are entitled to time and a half, whether they are casual or not. Their argument was also easily rubbished because I am aware that the man who supervises work in the orchard and who has worked there for eight years has never once been paid time and a half in his entire time there. Only recently has the fact that he's being ripped off been brought to his attention, when his wife pointed it out on his payslip with outrage.
With that argument discredited, they moved to try and excuse themselves, saying that they're "pretty flexible" in their allowing me to come back "ten minutes late from lunch," as if my missteps would make up for their breaching the law in underpaying the entire workforce. All the while, the male owner opted to twiddling an appendage of a nearby feijoa tree, making minimal eye contact with me -- because he knows I'm right, and he knows the workers cannot be fooled. A continuation of the argument, which was by now becoming very heated due to the owners' malicious confrontational style, involved the final claim that they have never paid people time and a half before, and that as such it would be unfair to the other workers to pay it to me now. Effectively they just admitted that ever since the Holidays Act 2003 kicked in, they have been abusing workers' rights and breaking the law. Also, none of us have contracts, and the law requires that employers provide workers -- even if they are casual -- with these. With that, they gave me my undersized pay packet and with a wry "bye," drove away together on their freakish off-road mobility scooter.
You can understand that part of me wants to see the orchard levelled and a massive Midnight Oil concert held on the former site, and I can say I will certainly be showing the owners the documents off of the Department of Labour Web site that specify all of our rights as workers. If they don't comply then, I'll be calling the Department of Labour inspectors to the site to force the owners to pull their fingers out. Then, I'll leave. It's times like these you wish unions were more prominent in this society. But I'm actually really excited about the prospect of getting a new job, and have been searching for one as of the start of this week -- I'm considering retail, as I'm sure I don't want to be involved in manual labour ever again. In retrospect, Pak 'n Save was even alright. If I got anywhere near as assertive to the Pak 'n Save management as I did to the owners of the orchard yesterday, I'd have all my concerns acted upon. Maybe I'll even get a job on the Shore.
I've yet to start work on my four thousand word politics essay that is due on Friday. I can certainly do it -- it's feasible -- but it's going to require some intensive effort, not like I've been putting in today -- playing Genesis loudly on my fantastic Transonic boombox and dancing in my bedroom is too much of a distraction. It's gotten to the stage where I'm feeling a touch unenthused about uni at the moment. Two of my four papers have turned out to be pretty much dissatisfactory. One has been alright, while ethnomusicology is undoubtedly my best choice this semester. I couldn't fault it, but could merely fault myself for not knowing how to read and perform music, or sing properly in the technical sense, because I think those skills would've helped me get more out of this paper.
I was blown away upon arriving at Cynthia's house last night, expecting the usual dinner and America's Next Top Model-watching session with Cynthia, Alison and Nicola that graces every Friday night, to find an awesome surprise party had been organised for me. I made a distinctly "Gary" entrance, in that I was displeased with the slight tongue-in-cheek reprimand that I received from Cynth as a result of my being late, and made no secret of this; after all, I had already had to go and buy a certain kind of ice cream (I am the specified provider of desserts to our evenings). This only serves to accentuate how much I wasn't expecting a surprise party. First Ali's and Cynth's painting and pinata, now this! I was only just starting to realise that people actually like me until now, when it's suddenly hit me. It's wonderful and touching and I am so grateful for all of my friends. Ali had even invited Mat and Andrew to the party, so all of my best friends were there. I had a crown, a throne, a Winston Peters pinata and The Dark Side of the Moon birthday cake! Unbelievable. It was seriously the best birthday party ever and made me feel really special. I never, ever dreamed that I would have such awesome friends that would do something like this for me. But I do.
When I confronted the owners about it, first they said they consider me a casual worker and as such I am "not actually entitled to time and a half." I quickly despatched that argument by citing that it is required by law that all workers who work on a public holiday are entitled to time and a half, whether they are casual or not. Their argument was also easily rubbished because I am aware that the man who supervises work in the orchard and who has worked there for eight years has never once been paid time and a half in his entire time there. Only recently has the fact that he's being ripped off been brought to his attention, when his wife pointed it out on his payslip with outrage.
With that argument discredited, they moved to try and excuse themselves, saying that they're "pretty flexible" in their allowing me to come back "ten minutes late from lunch," as if my missteps would make up for their breaching the law in underpaying the entire workforce. All the while, the male owner opted to twiddling an appendage of a nearby feijoa tree, making minimal eye contact with me -- because he knows I'm right, and he knows the workers cannot be fooled. A continuation of the argument, which was by now becoming very heated due to the owners' malicious confrontational style, involved the final claim that they have never paid people time and a half before, and that as such it would be unfair to the other workers to pay it to me now. Effectively they just admitted that ever since the Holidays Act 2003 kicked in, they have been abusing workers' rights and breaking the law. Also, none of us have contracts, and the law requires that employers provide workers -- even if they are casual -- with these. With that, they gave me my undersized pay packet and with a wry "bye," drove away together on their freakish off-road mobility scooter.
You can understand that part of me wants to see the orchard levelled and a massive Midnight Oil concert held on the former site, and I can say I will certainly be showing the owners the documents off of the Department of Labour Web site that specify all of our rights as workers. If they don't comply then, I'll be calling the Department of Labour inspectors to the site to force the owners to pull their fingers out. Then, I'll leave. It's times like these you wish unions were more prominent in this society. But I'm actually really excited about the prospect of getting a new job, and have been searching for one as of the start of this week -- I'm considering retail, as I'm sure I don't want to be involved in manual labour ever again. In retrospect, Pak 'n Save was even alright. If I got anywhere near as assertive to the Pak 'n Save management as I did to the owners of the orchard yesterday, I'd have all my concerns acted upon. Maybe I'll even get a job on the Shore.
I've yet to start work on my four thousand word politics essay that is due on Friday. I can certainly do it -- it's feasible -- but it's going to require some intensive effort, not like I've been putting in today -- playing Genesis loudly on my fantastic Transonic boombox and dancing in my bedroom is too much of a distraction. It's gotten to the stage where I'm feeling a touch unenthused about uni at the moment. Two of my four papers have turned out to be pretty much dissatisfactory. One has been alright, while ethnomusicology is undoubtedly my best choice this semester. I couldn't fault it, but could merely fault myself for not knowing how to read and perform music, or sing properly in the technical sense, because I think those skills would've helped me get more out of this paper.
I was blown away upon arriving at Cynthia's house last night, expecting the usual dinner and America's Next Top Model-watching session with Cynthia, Alison and Nicola that graces every Friday night, to find an awesome surprise party had been organised for me. I made a distinctly "Gary" entrance, in that I was displeased with the slight tongue-in-cheek reprimand that I received from Cynth as a result of my being late, and made no secret of this; after all, I had already had to go and buy a certain kind of ice cream (I am the specified provider of desserts to our evenings). This only serves to accentuate how much I wasn't expecting a surprise party. First Ali's and Cynth's painting and pinata, now this! I was only just starting to realise that people actually like me until now, when it's suddenly hit me. It's wonderful and touching and I am so grateful for all of my friends. Ali had even invited Mat and Andrew to the party, so all of my best friends were there. I had a crown, a throne, a Winston Peters pinata and The Dark Side of the Moon birthday cake! Unbelievable. It was seriously the best birthday party ever and made me feel really special. I never, ever dreamed that I would have such awesome friends that would do something like this for me. But I do.
posted by Gary at 7:55 pm
4 Comments:
Dude,
Low paying mcshit jobs rip people off because their under the assumption that anyone working for them is going to be stupid. Its great how these jobs are the foundation of society.
Unions have gone down the drain because people are generally apathetic or organising a large uprising as such, is incredibly difficult in the current labour situation. After all, we don't have 4000 workers leaving a factory at 5pm.
It is nice to see what the supersize mypay union thing is doing, and seems to be getting the energy required to get anything done these days.
Oooo when we get the photos of the pinata we must put them up on this site so the world can see the fabulousness that was the winston pinata; oh and the beating he received (albeit a not very damaging one) thanks to gary. yes good plan... yess....
cynthia
the conduct of the managers of the orchard is ridiculous.
good job on confronting them gary.
"goodam money.it ends up making you blue as hell"
when i remember where that's from i'll get back to you.
i also suggest that you steer clear of retail but it's not all bad.
regardless of what you do it depends on the people you're working with. the team at placemakers made working with lightbulbs, paint and dodgy builders tolerable. ish.
four thousand words? whoa. may the force be with you.
and dancing around your bedroom is always appropriate. always.
*massive smile*
yay for surprise birthday parties with winston peter pinatas that give you warm fuzzies. indeed.
They seem to target immigrant workers so that there's less likelihood of them knowing their rights under New Zealand employment law, thus leaving them open to exploitation. I would assume that's why they've gotten away with it for so long, Pie. They should have considered that advertising on Student Job Search would have the potential of attracting people who can't be fooled (I was the only person they actually recruited through it).
When I suggested that I work in retail, what I had in mind was a music store -- I'm in the process of filling in my epic application form for Sounds. I think that's one job I might actually enjoy doing, and as Alison has said to me, the people who work there are probably actually interesting. I appreciate your words of caution anyway, Stace and Nico.
You can be assured that there'll be a blog entry dedicated to my birthday party once I get my hands on the photos. It really was in many senses a visual extravaganza, so the photos need to be published to truly do it justice! Of course, it's already known how much I appreciated the party being put on for me -- so much.
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