D Dawson

It has been found that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment [MBIE] in Wellington has been holding daily workplace waiata sessions, ie staff singing sessions in their swanky Wellington offices.

This was happening 30 minutes a day every workday during working hours, paid for by the taxpayer.

MBIE bosses asked staff to get back to work but the public servants said “no”.

According to documents unearthed by the Taxpayers Union, MBIE bosses attempted to reduce these sessions from a daily 30-minute sing-along across various floors to just 20 minutes, twice a week.

According to emails obtained under the Official Information Act, one of the reasons for the cutback was concerns about workplace waiata causing noise distraction for others in the office.

Unfortunately, MBIE staffers rejected management’s offer to cut back their singing sessions.

Staff wrote an eight page submission demanding that the waiata “entitlement” continue; staff described the sessions as “taonga’ [treasure] and insisted they were essential for “wellbeing” and “capability building”.

When management instructed them to have the waiata sessions during unpaid breaks, they were told by the staffers that they were being “colonial” and “culturally insensitive”.

MBIE’s chief executive was forced to hold crisis meetings to reach a compromise and eventually agreed though a “cultural negotiation” that the 30-minute sing-along would not be abolished but would be reduced from five to three 30-minute sessions a week.

MBIE employs 5892 staff or public servants and some are being paid by the taxpayer to sing songs, clap, poi and recite Māori proverbs and hymns.

This represents a blatant waste of taxpayers’ money by the public service being held to ransom.

What do you think?