Silver Fern Farms is quite rightly getting slammed in cyberspace for their actions in docking the pay of their workers who observed the two minutes’ silence during the memorial service for the Pike River miners.
Sure, there have been some trying to defend their actions by pointing out that the staff are paid by production levels so during those two minutes didn’t process the one-beast-per-60-seconds (or whatever the rate is) they normally would but that just doesn’t wash.
Even if they are paid by number of animals dispatched, surely the company could have paid them out at their normal rate, including the two they were behind, as a sign of good faith and support.
The Pike River mine disaster was felt by every New Zealander, whether they knew someone in the mine or not. It was a truly awful but uniting event and one that shouldn’t be used to save a couple of bucks. In fact it was even less than a couple of bucks: it was between 98c and $1.60.
Yes it doesn’t seem like much but a nation was asked to honour the miners by observing the two minutes of silence so surely the company could have shown an equal amount of respect by not breaking out the calculators.
ON THE WEB
- STUFF: Pay docked for two-minute Pike River silence
- NZ HERALD: Pay cut for tw0-minute silence
Oh what! SF Farms ought to be fined for their miserly attitude and behaviour!