The next Government should restore fair pay agreements and pay equity legislation within its first 100 days, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi says in its Briefing to the Incoming Government, released today.
The briefing sets out 16 priorities across three themes – good work, a just economy, and modern public services and infrastructure. It speaks for more than 370,000 union members across NZCTU’s 32 affiliated unions.
“Working people have been weathering a long storm. Incomes have fallen behind the cost of living since 2021, unemployment is at an 11-year high, and people are going to work every day and still falling behind,” says Sandra Grey, NZCTU President.
“This briefing is a practical plan to turn that around. The NZCTU looks forward to working with the next Government to implement this plan.”
StatsNZ figures show 171,000 people were unemployed in the June 2026 quarter and 440,000 were underutilised. One in seven children, and one in 10 people over 65 are living in poverty. Yet in just the last year, the wealth of the 150 richest New Zealanders on the NBR Rich List rose by $27 billion to $129 billion.
The briefing calls for the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026 and the Employment Leave Act to be repealed before they take effect. It also calls for 90-day trials to be abolished and for corporate manslaughter legislation to be introduced.
“Fair pay agreements are the best tool we have to lift wages for hundreds of thousands of people in industries like supermarkets and cleaning, where employers compete by driving pay down. Restoring them, along with the pay equity system that was gutted last year, should be the first job of the next Government,” says Grey.
“We also need to rebalance the tax system. Inland Revenue’s own research shows the wealthiest 311 families pay less than half the effective tax rate of ordinary Kiwis. That’s unfair, and it starves the public services working people rely on. A capital gains tax is the obvious place to start,” says Grey.
“Power prices have gone up 12 percent in a year because the gentailers are incentivised to chase profits rather than build new generation. The Government is already the majority shareholder – it’s time it used that power for households,” says Grey.
“None of this works without working people having a real voice in the decisions that affect them. Working people have been clear about what they need. Now it’s up to the parties to show us they’re listening.”
The full Briefing to the Incoming Government is available here.
