Jesus did not mince words when he said, "Woe to you who are rich," after listing the Beatitudes as written according to St. Luke, the pope said in a morning homily.

If anyone today "were to preach like that, the newspapers the next day (would say), 'That priest is a communist!' But poverty is at the heart of the Gospel," Francis said.

Celebrating Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae May 24, Francis focused his homily on the day's first reading from the Letter of James (5:1-6) in which the apostle scolds the rich. Not only has their wealth "rotted away," the decay and corrosion of their material possessions "will be a testimony against you" on judgment day, the passage says.

James criticized employers who withheld wages from their workers, the pope said, and those workers' cries reached the ears of the Lord.

People today mistakenly might think James is "a union representative," Francis said, but he is an apostle whose words were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Even in Italy, there are those who leave people out of work to protect their assets, but whoever does this, "Woe to you!" not according to the pope, but according to Jesus, he said.

Jesus, he said, is the one who says, "Woe to you who exploit people, who exploit labour, who pay under the table, who don't pay pension contributions, who don't offer vacation days. Woe to you!"

Wage theft, like "skimming" from people's paychecks, "is a sin; it is a sin," the pope said, even if the employer goes to Mass every day, belongs to Catholic associations and prays novenas.

When an employer doesn't pay what is due, he said, "this injustice is a mortal sin. You are not in God's grace. I'm not saying this, Jesus says it, the Apostle James says it."

The condemnation is severe because "wealth is idolatry" that seduces people, and Jesus knew people could not serve two masters — they must choose either God or money, Francis said.

Wealth "grabs you and doesn't let you go, and it goes against the first commandment" to love God with all one's heart, he said.

It also goes against the second commandment to love one's neighbor, he said, because a love of wealth "destroys the harmonious relationship between us" and "makes us selfish," he said. It "ruins life, ruins the soul." Continue reading

• Image: Philly Employment Lawyer

A new research paper canvassing how the British and Americans handle law-breaking employers is offering a solution to New Zealand's so-called lazy and drugged-up workforce problems. Continue reading

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment was notified 15 times about businesses breaking trading laws over Easter weekend - well down on the 42 complaints lodged last year, and the lowest in at least four years.

Trading restrictions on Good Friday and Easter Sunday prohibit many shops from opening.

Flouting the law can lead to a $1000 fine. Continue reading

MPs have voted 75 to 45 in favour of the bill, moving it to the Commerce Committee for consideration.

"We are disappointed that the vote in favour of sending the Shop Trading Hours Amendment Bill to Select Committee means the rights of vulnerable workers and their families to time off at Easter is under threat," said Cardinal John Dew on behalf of the Catholic Bishops of New Zealand.

"This is about ensuring that vulnerable workers can count on having time off for things that strengthen community and family life," Dew said.

"We are also deeply concerned that a dangerous precedent could be set in turning an issue that has always been a conscience vote, into a government Bill in which MPs are not free to vote according to their conscience."

"Conscience votes are an important protection for MPs and for society as a whole," Cardinal Dew said.

Dew said the NZ Catholic Bishops would be making a submission to the committee to oppose the bill.

Cardinal John Dew is the President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference.

Currently, laws stipulate most shops must close or restrict what they sell on Easter Sunday — for example, bars can only serve food (no alcohol).

The bill was put forward by Workplace Relations Minister Michael Woodhouse, who reasoned current laws were out of date.

"The historical Easter Sunday shop trading exemptions are out of date and create an unfair advantage for certain businesses and regions that can continue trading while others stay shut," he said.

"We know there is a demand from communities across the country to allow for shop trading on Easter Sunday, particularly from those districts who rely on tourism."

Good Friday, ANZAC Day and Christmas Day were not affected.

Woodhouse said the holiday is still significant for many Kiwis which is why workers will still be able to refuse to work on that day.

Source

• Supplied NZCBC
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: bradleystokejournal.co.uk

She was responding to the announcement by the Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse that The Government will change "arbitrary" national Easter Sunday trading restrictions and put the onus on local councils to decide opening hours.

"There are a range of activities that take place at Easter because most New Zealand workers are guaranteed time off work - including church activities, but also sports tournaments, school reunions, hui, unveilings and other marae gatherings," said Hickey.

She says that once shops are open, many retail workers and others such as cleaners and security workers will end up working whether they want to or not.

"For those experiencing financial pressure, families and communities will be deprived of their presence, and our whole society will be the poorer for it," she says.

"Giving more choice to businesses takes away choice from working families and it impoverishes communities."

"We have a very long track record of submitting and commenting on proposed changes to Easter trading hours. However, there has been no consultation with Churches or unions on this proposed legislation."

Over the past 25 years there have been more than 10 attempts to make changes to Easter trading laws, each of which has been defeated as New Zealanders have consistently expressed their views on the matter.

Hickey points out that a number of National Members of Parliament have a record of voting against liberalisation of Easter trading hours in conscience votes, including the sponsor of this Bill - Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse.

"We are concerned and disappointed that now this is introduced as a government bill, rather than a private member's bill, a number of Government MPs will be required to vote against their conscience."

Although some businesses have expressed a desire for more commercial activity at Easter, Hickey said it is the most vulnerable workers with the fewest choices who should be the focus of debate around this bill.

"Easter is one of the few times of the year when many families and communities are guaranteed important time together."

"We should be supporting that, rather than undermining it and moving further towards a consumerist lifestyle that Pope Francis has warned against. "

Source

• crispin@caritas.org.nz
• Image: campaigncentre.com.au

The Pope called on participants at the World Meeting of Popular Movements last week in Rome to attack the structural causes of poverty and to defend workers' rights.

In a six-page speech, Pope Francis lamented that "land, housing and work are increasingly unavailable to the majority" of the world's population.

"It is strange, but if I talk like this, there are those who say that the Pope is a communist," he added.

"They don't understand that love for the poor is at the centre of the Gospel," he said.

"Demanding this isn't unusual, it's the social doctrine of the Church."

The address comes after right-wing US commentators had said the Pope is a Marxist because he criticised capitalist excess and demanded that governments should redistribute social benefits to the needy.

The Pope's speech also further highlighted his concerns for the environment, as well as the rights of farmers to have land, and for young people to be employed.

He said these issues would be dealt with in his upcoming encyclical on ecology and the environment.

The Pope said Christians must fight against social injustice, adding that Church doctrine commands Catholics to fight "for the dignity of the rural family, for water, for life and for all to benefit from the fruits of the earth".

He said it was right "to combat the structural causes of poverty, inequality, unemployment and [loss of] land, housing, social and labour rights".

The struggle for just causes "does us all good", Francis said.

"Let's say together with our heart: no family without a roof, no peasant farmer without land, no worker without rights, no person without dignified labour!"

Christians must also confront the destructive effects of what the Pope called the "Empire of Money" - forcible displacements and migrations, human and drug trafficking, war, and violence.

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Independent
• Image: Koin

FIRST Union retail secretary Maxine Gay said retailers who opened on Good Friday were being "greedy", with little regard for workers' and families' need.

"Retail workers have among the fewest rights in the country - shops are already allowed to trade 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the other 361 days of the year. I think they can handle a break 3 1/2 days a year."

The FIRST Union says shop assistants will be pressured by employers to work at Easter if the Easter holidays are done away with.

Gay said the union has numerous examples of the pressure applied to shop assistants to work hours that other people expect as leisure time.

Workers could feel pressured into complying with a retailer's desire to remain open and some union members had faced ostracism when they opted not to work.

She said the union did not oppose retailers opening for events held on public holidays that were likely to attract tourism dollars.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, the Catholic social agency says there should be no change to Easter trading laws, citing the need for retail workers to spend some time with their families.

Retail Association chief executive Mark Johnston said consumers were increasingly shopping online on Good Friday and Easter Sunday when most shops were forced to shut.

The law was outdated, Johnston said, and the association would be asking for the legislation to be amended after this year's election to keep up with the changing retail landscape.

• Listen to an interview with Lisa Beech, a spokesperson for Caritas, on Sunday Morning. In this interview the idea that Sunday trading is not simply a religious issues, but a matter of a more human way of living, is discussed

• Easter trading laws - the right balance or archaic and in need of a huge overhaul? Have your say on Easter trading on Stuff. The Shop Trading Hours Repeal Act specifies that most shops must close on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and until 1pm on Anzac Day.

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• Stuff.co.nz
• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: News.msn.co.nz

Bishop Peter said that each one of the "terrible statistics" of workplace deaths, injuries and illnesses represented the suffering of individuals and families.

He said human wellbeing was not simply a matter to be addressed as a side-issue after economic planning had been done, but needed to be factored in before the profits were calculated.

"The very starting point of all economic and social planning needs to be the innate dignity of the human being. Because when you start there, you've got a way of calculating the real value of human labour," said Bishop Peter.

"And if you don't start that calculation starting from the innate human dignity of the human person, it's no wonder that you end up concluding that human labour is only a cost to be reduced as far as possible."

Other speakers recalled the recent deaths of clothing workers in Bangladesh, ordered back to work in a building which subsequently collapsed, and of the 29 miners who died at Pike River. On average, one New Zealand worker dies each week in a workplace accident.

Findings from the Workplace Health and Safety Taskforce, which was released on Tuesday concluded that workplaces across the country are "not fit for purpose" and called for "urgent, broad-based change".

It said the country's health and safety system has "a number of critical weaknesses" and "needs major systemic changes to save lives".

However, on Wednesday Statistics New Zealand put a freeze on its release of work-related injury indicators because of "quality concerns".

The number of reported deaths from 2000 till 2011 was too high because in cases of multiple injuries the fatality was counted more than once.

The error was discovered before a scheduled release in November, and Statistics NZ said its previous figures should not be used until they were reviewed and revised.

Workplace Health and Safety Taskforce report's conclusions are:

• A stand-alone health and safety regulator - This would provide a single point of accountability and be best placed to promote and regulate workplace health and safety, and co-ordinate educational and compliance activities.
• Modern legislation - The current legislative environment is complex, confusing and outdated, with significant gaps in coverage. New Zealand needs new law that is comprehensive in its coverage and provides greater certainty for all participants.
• Tripartism operating at all levels - The Government and employer and worker representative bodies need to provide joint oversight of the system.
• Leadership and culture change - New Zealanders need to have a much lower tolerance of risky, unsafe and unhealthy work. A major national public awareness campaign is needed to shift attitudes. More people need to show leadership on workplace health and safety.
• Increased resourcing for new agency - Priorities include standard-setting to clarify expectations of all participants in the system; compliance support to lift the capacity and capability of the inspectorate; and in occupational health, which has suffered from significant under-investment and faces unique, complex challenges.

Source

• NZCBC
• TVNZ
• Stuff
• Image: NZCBC

10 bills have been put up by National members and one by Labour.

The present bill was sponsored by National MP for Waitaki Jacqui Dean and proposed allowing shops to open over Easter in Waitaki and Wanaka. It was voted down by 49 votes to 70 on Wednesday evening.

Dean says she will continue the fight to allow businesses in the electorate to trade at Easter, despite her latest attempt being defeated.

Votes on Easter are made by conscience vote.

Labour's industrial relations spokeswoman Darien Fenton said that central to the issue was workers' right to enjoy time off with family, which was only guaranteed three-and-a-half days a year: Easter Friday and Sunday, Christmas Day and half of Anzac Day.

She said ,"There isn't any way you can stop workers being forced to work." It was "just crazy" that National kept trying to push the issue. "Give it up."

Fenton acknowledged the law around Easter trading was "very messy" because it allowed some gardening centres to open and shops got fined every year for breaking the law.

First Union retail secretary Maxine Gay said New Zealand didn't need Easter trading.

"New Zealanders can shop on 361-and-a-half days a year, and on 51 of 52 Sundays of the year, and most shop workers could be required to work on any of these days."

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• The Southland Times
• Image: Caritas.org.nz

On Wednesday aftenoon, on National Radio, host Jim Mora and his fellow panelists expressed surprise at the amount of support that seemed to exist among the general the public for Sky City's actions.

One of the panelists, Gary McCormack, said, "There is something wrong with it; employment and human relations in the work place should be about individuals."

"New Zealand has become an ideology driven society where bureaucracy is the modern ideology... the individual does not matter any more," he said.

He believes that people's willingness to accept a "more uniform society" is "caused by fear, given the straitened economic times."

"We have got to a pretty sad point in NZ if we start picking on 65 year old ladies clutching bibles," said McCormack.

Tuni Parata, who has worked for Sky City for 16 years, was facing a hearing for possessing non-work related material during work hours after the book was found on a bathroom vanity in the Sky Tower while she was in a cubicle.

Her union, Unite, said she faced dismissal because the act was deemed to be serious misconduct.

The company has since issued a statement saying it regrets how the incident has played out and at no point was it deemed serious misconduct. Tuni Parata has not lost her job.

Sky City spokeswoman Grianne Trout told NBR Online Ms Parata will now be allowed to carry a small bible with her.

"In the past, Tuni did carry a much larger bible, and that just wasn't acceptable because she wasn't able to fit it in her pocket and she had to carry it in her hand.

"The bible she has now is a tiny wee thing that fits in her pocket.

"As long as she doesn't take it out when she's on shifts, we're happy to let her have it on her."

Listen to the discussion on The Panel

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• National Business Review
• Image: Screen Clip TVNZ