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Finance Minister Bill English - Source: ONE News -
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Pressure is mounting on the government to stem the tide of job
losses as more than 1000 New Zealanders a week join the dole
queue.
More and more companies are taking up the nine-day fortnight but
critics say it's doing little to save jobs.
Cambridge is a high end clothing manufacturer feeling the pressure of the recession. The company has just signed up to the nine-day fortnight.
Laila Harre of the National Distribution Union says Cambridge have been able to use the nine-day fortnight to reduce the working week slightly. She says workers have been compensated for that time, and the company overcame its fear of using this option.
The economy is bleeding jobs. The dole queue has almost trebled over the last 12 months.
In May last year about 17,000 people were on the unemployment benefit and now it has reached 45,000 people.
"We don't underestimate that that has a big impact on their
family and on their communities," says Bill English, Finance
Minister.
The government understands then, but
is it doing enough?
"There are more than 2000 jobs each week being lost altogether.
There is nothing that has come out of the jobs summit that has
seemed to have stemmed that flood in any way at all," says Phil
Goff, Labour leader.
The big idea of at the jobs summit was the nine-day
fortnight.
So far 25 companies have applied to use the nine-day fortnight.
Fifteen have signed up and 345 jobs have been
saved.
But the government claims to have saved more than 12,000 jobs with
a long list of projects
"A credit upgrade for this country, half a billion dollars into
infrastructure brought forward, half a billion into small and
medium enterprises, tens of millions of dollars into the export
credit office, a nine-day fortnight, a cycleway, a home insulation
package," says John Key, Prime Minister.
The government believes a large number of small initiatives is the
best strategy.
"If there was one big bang then government's all around the world
would be doing it," says English.
And many governments around the world have are facing higher unemployment than New Zealand is.
