A clause quietly embedded in a collective agreement at Oranga Tamariki should alarm anyone who still believes the public service is meant to operate on neutral ground.
Revealed this week by Duncan Garner, the provision grants Māori staff discretionary paid cultural leave that is self-defined, open-ended, and explicitly protected from managerial scrutiny. Attendance at land court hearings, iwi or hapū meetings, cultural performances such as Te Matatini, and other obligations determined by the individual qualify. The list is deliberately non-exhaustive.
Non-Māori employees with community, religious, family, or cultural commitments must use annual leave, leave without pay, or whatever goodwill a manager is prepared to offer. One group receives an automatic, protected benefit. Everyone else manages as they always have.
This is clearly wrong. I would hope managers would be flexible with all leave applications for cultural leave, but it is wrong to have one set of cultural leave as an automatic entitlement, and the rest discretionary.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
3 comments:
It's interesting how Maori culture has changed since the days of the great leaders like Ngata and Pomare. To a lot of people it has become all about how to get as much money as you can without doing any work.
Overt unequal citizenship based on ethnic privilege.
Any comment from the Prime minister who has overall responsibility for this government department ?
Any action ?
Just more blather about the economy while this racist acid eats away at democracy.
Luxon has to go.
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