11 Dec 2023

Union members protest over plans to scrap Fair Pay Agreements

11:16 am on 11 December 2023
Union members protesting outside ACT Party leader David Seymour's Epsom office on 11 December 2023.

Union members protesting outside ACT Party leader David Seymour's Epsom office. Photo: RNZ / Jordan Dunn

More than 100 union members and some politicians this morning protested outside the office of ACT Party leader David Seymour in the Auckland suburb of Epsom to protest plans to scrap Fair Pay Agreements.

Delegates from FIRST, E Tū, NZEI, and Unite were stationed on Gillies Avenue with banners and flags and chanting against the changes. There were also some politicians in the crowd including Labour's Phil Twyford and the Green's Ricardo Menéndez March.

First Union general secretary Dennis Maga said he had hoped to enter the office and meet with the ACT leader, however the front doors of the building had been locked.

Maga said the decision to scrap FPAs had been done without a select committee and without the consultations of unions and workers.

'No respect for workers lives' and 'Stand-up, fight back' were just two of the many slogans the crowds chanted.

Many members of the public were driving by and tooting their horns in support, RNZ's reporter at the scene said.

FIRST Union general secretary Dennis Maga speaking at a protest against scrapping Fair Pay Agreements outside the office of ACT leader David Seymour in the Auckland suburb of Epsom on 11 December 2023.

First Union general secretary Dennis Maga speaking at the protest. Photo: RNZ / Jordan Dunn

The office doors remained locked, with some protesters asking "Where is Brooke?" referring to Brooke Van Velden, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister.

"It seems no one is in the office, because no one is serving the New Zealand people," Maga said, "this is not over yet."

The protest is now ending and demonstrators are making their way out. Police are starting to ask people to leave the premises.

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