An Employment Relations Authority decision has whacked Ports of Auckland with a $40,000 fine for employing strike-breakers when its unionised workforce was picketing earlier this year. ERA member Anna Fitzgibbon yesterday found the port took a calculated risk in using an external contractor under the guise of a training programme while Maritime Union staff were on strike in February this …

The New Zealand and Australian governments should settle once and for all the long-running argument over the tax treatment of imputation credits, which currently penalises trans-Tasman investors, says a new report from the two country’s productivity commissions. write college essays for money The commissions suggest such a move could cost Australia as much as $1 billion a year in lost …

New Zealand’s manufacturing is “muddling” along as activity contracted last month in anticipation of a pick-up next year when Canterbury’s reconstruction effort gathers pace. The Bank of New Zealand-Business New Zealand performance of manufacturing index fell 1.5 points to 48.8 in November, where a reading below 50 indicates a contraction of activity, and a figure above 50 implies expansion. The …