Once the borders re-open, it would not surprise me if more Cook Islanders vote with their feet and move offshore to greener pastures and better – and less exploitative – working conditions, writes Moana Moeka’a.

Over the past 20 months I have been reading comments relating to the payment of the wage subsidy in Cook Islands (due to the world-wide Covid pandemic which was declared in March 2020) and the prime minister’s comments (relating to the opening of the border in January 2022) which appeared in Friday’s paper. 

I always believed that the wage subsidy was a payment which, when topped up by the employer, goes towards paying an employee’s weekly (or fortnightly) wage. 

It is quite obvious that it has been far from that (for obvious reasons) after having spoken to a few workers regarding their experience in terms of receiving the wage subsidy since April 2020. I have briefly outlined below what I have drawn from those conversations. The narrative might be slightly dated but I still believe it is still relevant today.

1. A person employed in a tourism-related business received around $320 gross (before tax) per week from the government-paid subsidy. This was about 70 per cent of his normal weekly pay. However he was made to work 40 hours a week doing tasks outside of his job description during the ‘lockdown’ (from late March 2020 to the beginning of May 2021). He continued to collect the wage subsidy – with no contribution from the employer – until the end of June 2021 – despite this particular business operating at nearly 100 per cent capacity from the time the borders were open to New Zealand tourists in late May, up until the end of June 2021 when the subsidy ceased. He told me that at least one complaint was made to the Labour department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about workers being made to work up to 40 hours on less pay (that one would normally receive) but nothing eventuated. He and a number of workers left this place of employment in July 2021.  
2. A person employed in a similar business to the example above, received the same subsidy (around $300). She was receiving less during the ‘lockdown’ than what she normally received but said that this was balanced out by the fact that she would work a ‘30-hour’ week. Duties were mainly landscaping/gardening/cleaning and ‘community work’. I spoke to this woman in March/April and understand that she is still at the same job.  
3. A person in another tourism-related business received the government subsidy (with no contribution from the business) from April 2020 to June 2021 when employees were required to ‘work’ between 30 and 40 hours per week. However the business – like that in example one above – was operating at 100 per cent in June, July and (I assume) the first couple of weeks in August 2021 (before New Zealand went into lockdown). In July (when I spoke to him) he was getting paid about 40 per cent less than his normal pay (which was being paid for by the business) which was the same amount as the wage subsidy. I’m assuming now in this late August/September/October/November ‘lockdown’, he would be back to drawing the wage subsidy (without top-up from the business) from government. 

I talked to two individuals (one who has since moved to the public service) employed by two different companies (which did not draw on the wage subsidy) and they received less weekly pay due to working less hours from around August/September 2020. Even though they reduced their working hours, these companies still valued the importance of their employees by keeping them on their same hourly rate. 

In contrast, crown/public/agency employees did not have a reduction in pay throughout the lockdown period. I believe that there were some employed in the public sector who drew sole trader grants during ‘lockdown’ in 2020 and recently in 2021. 

I have just written a book on Cook Islands involvement at Makatea (a phosphate-rich island in French Polynesia). In 1945, there was much fuss created – here on Rarotonga but more so in New Zealand – over the indentured Cook Islands labourers working in slave-like conditions on Makatea. 

CFPO – the company which mined the island – was an economic powerhouse in the territory and Makatea’s isolation basically gave the company the power to do whatever it wanted to do. 

Makatea may be a different world to Cook Islands. And yes, because of our small population, we are better off than most other Pacific countries. But while I sympathise with the tourism industry, especially on Rarotonga, the current situation shouldn’t give employers the right to use government money to exploit employees. 

Can one understand why workers would want to go to New Zealand to earn better money? The least businesses could’ve done (in examples 1 and 3 above) was to have reduced the hours of work for employees to suit the amount of pay received. (I believe there were a number of businesses that received the wage subsidy, that did reduce work hours for their employees). All the workers want is a fair deal.

One of the people I spoke to above said that what is needed here are unions to protect the interests of workers. 

We have laws and regulations. But there is very little enforcement. There appears to be very little accountability and definitely no parliamentary oversight like in Australia where a senate committee is currently inquiring into the administration of JobKeeper (similar to the wage subsidy), and also that country’s taxation office’s efforts to claw back any overpayments to some companies. Readers may be interested to note that some Australian companies which drew JobKeeper payments actually increased revenue and profits during the ‘lockdown’ period!

I believe that the tourism industry has the money to increase wages in the country. Geoff Bertram in his 2016 report ‘Implications of the Cook Islands’ Graduation from Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Eligibility identified an outflow of approximately $100 million per year from the economy. It was his belief that this money was after-tax private sector profits and land rents. 

I believe that groups of workers have left for the freezing works in New Zealand over the past month. It won’t stop there. 

Once the borders re-open, it would not surprise me if more Cook Islanders vote with their feet and move offshore to greener pastures and better – and less exploitative – working conditions. 

Moana Moeka’a is a former journalist and author of ‘Makatea’ (2021), ‘The Last Army Recruits’ (2016) and ‘Rangitukua’ (2019).