By Geoffrey Miller The National Secretary of the Unite union, Gerard Hehir, says government departments are failing to ensure low-paid hotel cleaners are given personal protective equipment while the hotels are housing returning New Zealanders in quarantine. Hehir gave the Democracy Project podcast an example of a Christchurch hotel which told its employees that they could wear protective equipment, but only if they supplied it themselves. Hehir, whose union mainly represents workers in primarily low-paid jobs in the hospitality industry, said the situation was “outrageous”. “The Ministry of Health generally are supplying protective gear, but what we’ve found is that...
By Geoffrey Miller A New Zealand-based academic from Iran says the coronavirus pandemic is unlikely to spark fundamental change in the country. Iran was one of the first countries outside China to see a major outbreak of the coronavirus. Figures from Johns Hopkins University on Sunday showed there were 35,408 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country, with 2,517 deaths, making it one of the worst-affected countries worldwide. But Sirous Amerian, a doctoral candidate at Massey University’s Centre for Defence and Security Studies, told the Democracy Project podcast that he is pessimistic about any longer-term reforms arising from the Covid-19...
