Corruption and Exploitation in NZ

Revealed: Air New Zealand's Mile-High Pay Gap

Air New Zealand's Shanghai-based flight attendants are paid a quarter the salary of their NZ colleagues - less than the legal minimum wage here.

The Chinese attendants - who work side-by-side with New Zealanders on flights between Auckland and Shanghai - are also paid only a third of the allowances given to their Kiwi counterparts while they are working away from home.

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Air NZ, which is 76 per cent-owned by the Government, said last night that the Chinese crew were employed by a company in China, and it was unfair to compare the salaries.

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One Chinese air stewardess said her monthly base salary was $520 and she got an extra $4.30 for every hour of flight time. This totals much less than New Zealand's legal minimum wage of $11.25 an hour.

Air NZ said it did not have to pay the minimum wage because the staff were on secondment from a Chinese company, Fasco.

But each has a New Zealand work permit giving Air NZ as the employer.

"We were led to believe that we will be working for Air NZ, then after we are successful, they drop the bomb telling us we are to sign a contract with a Chinese company and will be employed under Chinese terms," one air stewardess said.

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The Department of Labour, which oversees immigration, said it was aware that Fasco was the employer of the Chinese staff, but would not say why Air NZ was shown as their employer on the permits.
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So basically you have a government-owned business violating its own minimum wage and immigration laws. Frankly, it doesn't surprise me--the Chinese are the Mexicans of New Zealand. Progressive paradise my ass.