What’s tipped me over the edge is this kerfuffle around board pay. Frankly, it’s one of the most tone-deaf things I’ve seen in a very long time.
The board has approved pay rises for itself of up to 79 percent. Meanwhile, firefighters have been fighting - and now striking - for 18 months just to get pay increases. Most of them sit somewhere above the minimum wage but below the living wage, which is not a lot of money to pay people who literally go into burning buildings.
If these board pay increases go ahead as planned, the board chair will be paid more than any frontline firefighter on the base salary. One of those people is out there fighting fires and risking their life, the other is running the organisation - and running it badly.
That last point matters. If Fire and Emergency New Zealand had a strong track record we could point to, a pay rise of this scale might at least be explained, if not justified. But this is a terribly run organisation.
They’ve failed to settle a pay dispute for 18 months. Fire trucks break down so often it’s ridiculous - and quite scary. Equipment is failing. They paid for a fleet of fire trucks that arrived in the country too small to be used for rescues because the equipment doesn’t fit.
They’ve spent $500,000 on a chief executive and $2.37 million on seven deputy chief executives. There are now calls for a review into Fire and Emergency NZ because the place is so badly run.
I’m usually sympathetic to the argument that you need to pay decent rates to attract decent talent. But that’s not what’s happening here. This is simply a plan to increase the pay of the same people who are already doing a poor job running the organisation.
It’s unreal that this is happening. But in a strange way, it may actually be a gift to the striking firefighters. If they didn’t already have enough public support, surely seeing the kind of outfit they’re dealing with will generate some sympathy for their plight.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show. This article was sourced from Newstalk ZB.
1 comment:
Heather D - If you think this is bad, then you, like many other Kiwis, have missing to point about -
- the sale of Mainland Cheese
- Kraft Heinz leaving NZ
- the failure of McCain's
- plus others, why in all cases [due to NZ Law] a business of "note" is required to have a Chair & Board of Directors, most are "illiterate" when it comes to matters business, but not when it comes to "matters" pay rise for themselves.
You can also add Air NZ to this as well.
That is why we have "failures", that lead to business having financial issues, caused by a lack of understanding what is "more important" to keep the business functioning.
You will also find that these people "sit" on many Boards - so move their incompetence form one seat to another.
For NZ Fire Service, this current issue has "legs" [past failures to ensure capability] and it is now catching up with them.
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