Experiences of raising a concern in the workplace This section of the report outlines the experience Pacific workers have had in raising a concern in the workplace. We wanted to understand Pacific workers’ experience of raising a complaint as it is often assumed that Pacific workers do not raise their employment concerns. This can mean that employers assume Pacific workers are happy with their work conditions. We learned from people in our engagements that both of these assumptions are incorrect. As an example of a concern that was raised with an external agency, one woman told us about the difficulties she experienced about paying for childcare due to her husband’s seasonal work – during the rainy season, his work would cease due to the weather. However, due to overlapping time periods of pay and their process, WINZ were unable to help them with a childcare subsidy: Themes that reflect the key messages we heard are: • Pacific workers actively raise their concerns • employers do not listen when concerns are raised • unaddressed concerns impact Pacific workers’ wellbeing. Pacific workers actively raise their concerns The key finding from our survey and engagements was that Pacific workers do raise their concerns with their employers. These include concerns about pay, opportunities or safety in the workplace. People raised their concerns with their employers, with external agencies such as Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) and the unions. Of 500 responses to our survey, 73.4 percent of people shared that they had a concern in the last two years. Of this number, 50.60 percent of workers said that they did raise their concerns with their employer and 26.60 percent of Pacific workers said they did not do so. The survey responses were supported by what people told us during our engagements. Pacific workers’ main concern related to their pay, particularly around being underpaid and overworked. An agricultural worker told us that “the overwhelming amount of work I did did not match the wages I was given” (T005). One Pacific health worker shared that she raised a concern about being paid less than her fellow colleagues. However, she was told in response: There was not enough money based on being an NGO. However, heard that other Pākehā employees were receiving higher pay than I felt they deserved in comparison to my work. (S138) I actually applied for the childcare subsidy but we weren’t eligible because, during picking time, my husband gets a lot. And after picking … he’s a seasonal worker out on the field – depending on the weather, it goes from $400 to $800 or $900 at most if he’s working Monday to Saturday and it’s 50 hours weekly. So going back to being declined the childcare subsidy, while he’s picking, we try and part a large amount of his pay from now to make up for when he is getting $400, $500, $600, $700 during the raining season and winter seasons. So I was trying to explain to the lady from WINZ, and she was like “oh, sorry”. Basically what she said was “too bad we can’t help you now, just call back when you guys are getting $400, $500”. It was really frustrating. (T009) This experience was shared by other women in the same group. One told us “it’s hard to explain my feelings and my thoughts about the way of talking with Work and Income because it’s the same experience as her” (T009). Both of these women also experienced language barriers, as English is not their first language, when raising their complaint: And that’s the problem, there is no-one there that can actually advocate for our people mostly when they go through the doors of WINZ and stuff. (T009) Pacific workers’ experience of raising their concerns with their union differed from experiences with employers and external agencies like WINZ. Most of these experiences were either positive or neutral. Very few workers shared negative experiences when their concerns were taken to the union. Voices of Pacific peoples 79