The launch yesterday of a fundraising appeal for workers made redundant by Lane Walker Rudkin is putting more pressure on the Government to act as job losses mount.
With Finance Minister Bill English's first budget of the new administration due next week, having unions protesting on the streets of the capital will not help perceptions if the document fails to ignite positive public opinion.
The National Distribution Union launched the appeal for the 186 workers made redundant by LWR with a cake stall outside Westpac House, in Wellington's Lambton Quay.
The stall raised more than $1300 for the laid-off workers.
Union national secretary Laila Harre said she understood that wages for the week just worked would be put into the affected workers' bank accounts today but there was no guarantee they would see any of the holiday or redundancy pay owed to them.
LWR's banker Westpac should show some responsibility to the workers after it allowed the company to trade and build up significant debt, she said.
"So far the bank has refused to even meet the union and the Council of Trade Unions to discuss the situation."
The union wanted the Government to respond more effectively and if a support package could not be provided by LWR in receivership, then the Government and Westpac needed to come up with a mechanism to guarantee holiday and redundancy pay owed to workers.
The Government needed to fund a worker-led redundancy support service rather than leave workers to run cake stalls to set up their own support service, Ms Harre said.
Council of Trade Unions secretary Peter Conway called for the Government to act on a major report recommending statutory redundancy compensation and provision of redundancy support.
The Public Advisory Group on Restructuring and Redundancy finalised its report nearly a year ago.
Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson advised the CTU that the report was under consideration.
Included in the report was a recommendation to include a rebate for small firms to assist with the cost of redundancy compensation for workers laid off.
"The CTU agrees that the main focus today should be on finding jobs and/or providing training support for workers made redundant.
"But the reality is that many workers are getting no redundancy pay and are receiving inadequate notice of dismissal.
"This report made some practical suggestions to address this issue and should not be shelved."
Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O'Reilly said most of the businesses he had been talking to were feeling confident about the future.
"But they are certainly not taking happy pills."
New Zealand had a "practice recession" about a year before the financial meltdown due to high interest rates, fuel prices and housing prices, he said.
"So perversely, the fact we were in this recession before the rest of the world helped a number of companies to restructure and get rid of costs and get themselves sorted out before the rest of the world fell over."
That meant restructuring went on in a relatively benign environment and when the recession bit, some businesses did not fall as hard.
The 5% unemployment was "ugly" but was not as bad as figures in other Western countries, Mr O'Reilly said.
Mr Conway said taking a "not-that-bad" attitude to the unemployment level was disappointing.
It equated to a huge number of New Zealanders out of work and struggling.
Public Service Association (PSA) national secretary Brenda Pilott said an estimated 1400 jobs were cut from the public service under the first six months of National's reign.
"This makes a mockery of the Government's policy of capping the public service.
"The reality is the Government is cutting - not capping - the public service.
"Recently announced plans by the Ministry of Social Development to trim 200 jobs would add to hundreds more shed by not replacing staff who left.
"State Services Minister Tony Ryall said New Zealand was facing increasingly tough economic times.
"In the private sector, jobs are being lost every week and taxpayer-funded public sector recognises it has to carry its share of the burden," Mr Ryall said.
