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The pilots fired in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak say the government should consider tax relief for many like them who cannot access the wage subsidy or benefit, in a market where there are fewer jobs and higher unemployment.
Virgin Australia closed its New Zealand bases in early April, cutting around 600 jobs.
Photo: AFP
When ex-pilot Kit Alexander’s daughter bought him his pocket money so he could buy a coffee during his pizza delivery shift, he admits things got a little emotional.
But Alexander said he felt lucky compared to most people, given what was happening with Covid-19.
He was fired by Virgin Australia, which closed its New Zealand bases in early April, cutting around 600 jobs. He had been with the company for 12 years.
“I applied for many different jobs, but there aren’t many out there. I’m grateful to have a part-time job stacking shelves in New World and delivering food for Pizza Hut and KFC.”
“The difficult thing for many people is that there is no future for them in New Zealand for a long time and employers consider it as having no transferable skills.”
He suspects that the delivery job will stop soon, as normal life returns.
Alexander has a mortgage and bills to pay, but he keeps repeating how “lucky” he is compared to others.
“I’m very lucky to get that redundancy. That keeps us afloat right now.”
However, he is concerned about other colleagues who have just bought houses and tens of thousands of people who are going to lose their jobs in the coming months.
Like more than 5,000, it has signed a petition asking the government to stop taxing redundancy payments during the pandemic. The rate can be as high as 33 percent. The petition will be presented to Parliament this week.
Alexander said that he and many fired people were “falling into a gap” because they were unable to get a wage subsidy or a benefit for some time.
“The tax and redundancy law must change because it does not take into account a situation like this pandemic. It seems that the government is helping many people, which is really great, but many people are failing. We have all spent years paying our taxes. And we are just the first wave of this … it’s going to be a much bigger problem in the future. “
Under the circumstances, you would also like to see the elimination of factors that may delay payment of a benefit such as vacation pay, sick pay, extended service leave, and payment in lieu of notice.
‘The moment could not be worse’
Former Virgin pilot Peter Briant agreed. He said giving people tax relief around their redundancy payments would give them a better chance of surviving financially.
He and his wife, Rebecca, and their two children are in a rented property at this time, as they had not started building a house.
“The timing couldn’t be worse,” he says.
However, he and Rebecca still consider themselves luckier than most, but are weighing what to do. You may have to sell the house and a return to Australia is being discussed.
However, they don’t want to go. They moved to New Zealand with their two children about four years ago and they love it here. Limited.
Briant, who also has a business degree, has found a job in package sorting with NZ Post. He is very grateful but the money is not enough to pay the rent.
“It is difficult to convince people that you have transferable skills. All tax and redundancy legislation must change so that the money can last longer.”
His wife said that no matter what industry he was in at the time, being fired is like being a “forgotten victim.”
Last week, 300 Air New Zealand pilots lost their jobs under an agreement reached on the future of 1,200 jet pilots employed by the airline.
