February Newsletter Entry - Ros Rice, Executive Officer

Ros Rice, Executive Officer February Journal Entry

Kia ora everyone, thank you for reading our latest newsletter.

Well, it’s a new year and a new government, and we all know that means things will change. I want to talk about change for a moment.  Here is some advice on how to cope with change. 

• Learn to accept what has happened. Acceptance can really help. 
• Pace yourself, if you can. 
• Ask for help. Don’t forget CNA is here for you. 
• Look for new opportunities. You never know what may come up, and you think “YES!  We can do this.” 
• Have a strategy for dealing with stress. If stress is coming, be prepared for it. Look after yourself. 
• Plan ahead. If you suspect something is going to happen, be prepared to go into the “this is our plan B mode”. 
• Try and keep some normalcy. If you can maintain regular routines both for you and your colleagues, that will help. 

Stress can mount slowly, and you may not realise you are feeling it.  Notice what your colleagues are saying around you. Also, eat well, exercise and get enough sleep. That will always help you through. 

In other news, CNA is already working on projects for this year.  I hope you saw the press release we sent out in cooperation with Amateur Sport New Zealand! I think it will be an uphill battle, but we really want to try and change the compliance hell we have all fallen into.  I do hope you support us. 

Don’t forget this is conference year.  We are already in the process of organising this. Please make sure you have money set aside so at least one of you can come to Wellington for our conference. (It will be in mid to late October.) 

I have so much else to tell you, but next month might be a further conversation about this year.   

Ngā mihi, 

Ros 

Patrick Davies, Engagement  Officer February Hot Take! - Would You Like to Change a Law? 

First off happy new/lunar year! I’ve got a question: Would you like to change a law? 

I do. Now, right at the top I do have to say that this is not part of what CNA is doing. I’m kind of going rogue on this one. But having spent 3+ years here, (where did that time go?) I’ve become more engaged and more knowledgeable about parliament and the goings-on there. There’s always been one issue that has bugged me from the moment I realised it. And I found out that there’s something I might be able to do about it. So, this is a little project just for me, and for the hundreds of thousands it affects out there. 

I want to change the laws around Labour Day. 

This is the one day a year that is specifically there to celebrate workers, and to give them a day off. But we all know what happens – multinational corporations which have extremely healthy bottom lines have sales. Huge Sales. Labour Day Sales. And who persons the stores? That’s right – the workers. 

On a day meant to give them time off from work, a day that is not attached to any other meaning, a huge number of Kiwis are required to show up. AT WORK. There are a lot of things that make my blood boil these days as I work my way to old curmudgeon. And I have learnt to ‘Desideratafy’ most of them – you know, knowing which things I can change and letting go of the drama of the rest. But this sticks in my craw. It's also something that Aotearoa / NZ law lets me have a crack at changing. 

I can petition parliament to change the laws to create similar working conditions on that day as on Christmas day, giving companies no choice but to close and give those workers back their entitlement to a day off work. Any Kiwi can petition parliament on anything – I know because I’ve watched some amazing petitions (and some, to put if frankly, daft as petitions) come before select committees and parliament. 

I have gone onto the parliamentary website and filled in the beginnings of my petition. Just to reiterate, this is not part of my mahi with CNA, this is me, as a private citizen, spending time on this outside of my working hours. But to spread this message far and wide as well as give you an insight into how all this works, I’ll be blogging monthly and what I’m doing, why, and how it’s going. 

I suspect I’m going to be talking to Unions, large corporations, and a whole bunch of people to hopefully enact change for 2026. Let’s see what happens!