Insecure work traps thousands, weakens democracy - study

A new research study reveals that thousands of Aucklanders, many of whom are Māori, Pasifika, and migrant workers, are trapped in low-paid, insecure jobs.

The precarious work keeps them in poverty and diminishes their voice in local democracy.

Dr Marko Galič’s ethnographic study reveals how low-paid, insecure employment perpetuates poverty and creates a sense of powerlessness among workers, leaving them too exhausted to engage in democratic processes.

“Precarious work is not a bridge to secure employment. That’s simply not true,” Galič says. “A vast majority of workers I interviewed are caught going from one precarious job to another. A very small number get out, but even then, they feel their situation is fragile.”

Through in-depth interviews and his own experiences juggling multiple insecure jobs, Galič shows the harsh realities faced by supermarket checkout operators, hotel cleaners, fast-food employees, and warehouse workers. They endure irregular hours, unpaid overtime, unsafe working conditions, and often work two or three jobs just to make ends meet.

“Precarity colonises and appropriates a person’s life totally,” he says. “People become ‘crisis managers’ for their families, knowing the crisis might never end.”

Real lives, hidden costs

Sanjay, a supermarket checkout operator, has been asking for full-time hours for a decade.

“They said yes, next time, next timebut it’s now the 10th year. They’re not giving hours. And it’s not just this supermarket. I worked in other branches too as a casual for nearly two years, one year for four hours a week only,” he says.

Fale, a Pasifika hotel cleaner with 15 years in the hospitality industry, is frustrated over his unstable work.

“I don’t like this industry because it doesn’t guarantee any hours. The family can’t survive with that kind of income, especially nowadays when all the prices went up. We have to pay rent, feed the kids. If you work in a hotel as a housekeeper, you struggle a lot,” he says.

Penina, a 22-year-old Māori-Pasifika student working for a global fast-food chain, describes her exhausting schedule.

“I don’t have time to sleep. Literally, I only had two hours of sleep and then I had to come early ‘cause I have an early class. Last night I worked from 5pm and finished at 12.30. I got home around 1am because I live kinda far. Then do some study, sleep, then back to uni. On my contract it says I can work 29 hours. They offered me 29 but the fact is we’re short-staffed. We don’t have a choice but to come in and cover,” she says.

Serving tables: the hospitality industry often makes it hard to secure permanent hours. Photo/123rf

Precarity undermines democracy

Galič says insecure work does more than keep people in poverty. It disrupts whānau time, harms mental and physical health, and erodes democracy itself.

“When you’re exhausted or juggling three jobs, you’re less likely to vote, speak up at community meetings or hold politicians to account. Precarity becomes a form of control over everyday life. People can’t plan the future or live well in the present,” he says.

Shanna Olsen-Reeder, the National Secretary of Unite Union, reinforces these findings.

She calls for local and central governments to lead by example in fair employment practices.

“We have hundreds of stories. People have been in these jobs for many years and they’re still struggling to get enough hours to live on. Many are still sitting under 20 hours a week work,” she says.

Stuck in traffic, stuck in precarious work. Photo/123rf

“When you’re juggling two jobs, maybe studying, maybe caring for other people in a multi-generational household, popping out to vote is not your priority. Civic participation is just not realistic for many people.

“Why would you sign a contract with someone that wasn’t a fair employer who paid people properly? It doesn’t make sense to me. We can’t keep letting employers exploit vulnerable, low-paid workers, and then pretend they can just ‘pull themselves up by their bootstraps’.”

Etevise Ioane, a campaign organiser with E tū Union, says workers face this struggle all the time.

“This is all so familiar. We deal with it every day and every week. We have so many stories on paper, in videos and in submissions. It is a sad reality for many workers, especially our people, and this government makes it worse by letting employers keep exploiting vulnerable, low-paid workers,” she says.

Real change, she says, will come only through collecting action.

“We need collective action. Being in a union is part of that. Our communities and churches can step up too and help fight the injustices that keep the poor oppressed,” she says.

What is Auckland Council doing?

Auckland Council reports an increase in spending with Māori and Pasifika businesses, although they admit gaps remain.

“In FY23, 5.37 per cent of our direct procurement spend went to diverse suppliers (Māori, Pasifika and social enterprises). This rose to 5.88 per cent in FY24 and 6.53 per cent in FY25. These figures cover direct spend only; we don’t yet report subcontracting spend,” Richard Jarrett, Director of Group Shared Services, says.

He says council lacks a policy requiring suppliers to offer secure, fair work, but this is under review.

“As part of our Procurement work, we’re looking at implementing a Group Supplier Code of Conduct. Looking at fair work outcomes is now part of the scope of our Sustainable Procurement Community of Practice,” he says.

Exhausted workers are less likely to vote - a hidden cost of insecure jobs. Photo/123rf

Jarrett says programmes like Ngā Puna Pūkena have helped place hundreds of Māori and Pasifika workers into full-time positions with council contractors, but he acknowledges that more efforts are necessary.

Why it matters

Galič says precarious is rooted in colonial dispossession and a long history of policies that have shifted risk onto workers. Addressing this issue will require collective action and bold political decisions.

“We learned through COVID that actually the people that we think their jobs are important are not necessarily so important. The people that we actually need are the people who cleaned those hotel rooms and the MIQs. The people we need are the people who work in the supermarket. Those people are essential, and we should value them,” Olsen-Reeder says.

Early start: a hotel cleaner heads in for another shift. Photo/Unsplash/Ashwini Chaudhary(Monty)

She believes the solution is both straightforward and ambitious.

“We need to create some really powerful societal change, and a very simple way to do that would be to make sure that people get paid enough per hour so that they can live a proper, comfortable life,” she says.

“It’s about giving people hours that they can live on so that people don’t have to work multiple jobs.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.