Media release

Auckland Councillor Cameron Brewer

Thursday, 7 November 2013

Brown pushing ahead with Living Wage but silent on big salaries

Auckland Mayor Len Brown is pushing through a Living Wage at Auckland Council despite councillors agreeing in good faith for the CEO to do more work on the issue just two months ago, says Auckland Councillor for Orakei, Cameron Brewer.

“The new second-term council was waiting for a comprehensive report but the Mayor’s pushing ahead regardless with political expediency, not good process, seemingly the winner.

“The council’s own Business Advisory Panel, many business leaders and owners, as well as ratepayers are genuinely concerned about this matter.

“One of the concerns is that the $3.75m annual cost is only the start and that it could trigger wage inflation throughout the whole organisation, with the prospect of increasing contractor bills also a real possibility. While at the same time other Auckland organisations and businesses could soon be forced to compete with council on wages. Today I asked for any potential additional internal and external flow-on costs and wider economic impacts to be considered and reported back before any final decisions are made.

“With the support of a majority of councillors, I passed an amendment back in September that any additional costs incurred by the Living Wage policy be found within the council’s existing $702m wage and salary budget. However the Mayor has ignored that clear direction and is now looking at finding the money from all around the organisation, potentially affecting service levels.

“In his Mayoral proposal for the 2014/15 Annual Plan today, Mr Brown was quite mute on how he was going to address the big council salaries. His plan to develop a council remuneration policy is encouraging but he has yet to give any concrete commitments to slowing down the ongoing growth in staff numbers and six-figure salaries.

“The public expectations around the Mayor’s remuneration policy will be high. In the meantime, it’s very unfortunate that he’s jumped the gun on promising the Living Wage before delivering the requested report and developing any policy work. His first priority seems to be improving his own political support base.

“The good news is in the coming months the public can have their say through the draft 2014/15 Annual Plan consultation and submission process,” says Cameron Brewer.

Ends

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