Story tallies with my lab experiences

Exhausted lab workers fear Omicron testing avalanche (Jan 26), about the unsung heroes of the Covid crisis and in particular about the appalling pay rates of these people, will no doubt be an eyeopener to many people. It wasn’t to me.

I was a medical laboratory worker for 29 years, starting as an unskilled assistant and eventually qualifying to become a technician. By the time I retired I was earning the princely sum of 2 cents an hour above the average wage in New Zealand, and my pay included merit raises over the years.

Had I not had those, I would have been well under the average wage.

I was disgusted to read that technician ‘‘Emily’’ earns $25 an hour, with a science degree and a graduate diploma. What a great incentive to pursue a career in science. At the end of last year, the average NZ wage was $35.30 an hour.

Even more challenging to my outrage at the article was the quote from APHG chief executive Anoop Singh that he had not had any complaints about the pay deal struck with Apex. He wouldn’t, would he, if the staff are afraid to speak up.

So I will: I say to management, get into the real world and pay these people what they are worth. A fifth of the top pay in the company would be a good start (and include your perks like flash cars in that sum).

It was a very busy job when I worked and I have no idea how they cope with Covid testing on top of the usual workload. Thank you, all lab workers, you have my deepest admiration for your efforts.

Margaret Mckay, Petone

Banking barriers

I just paid my wife’s tax at Westpac, but how tedious was that! Once I could present a cheque over the counter. More recently, provided the payment was within my card’s limit, I could pay by eftpos, but no more.

Now I have to use the bank’s ATM, but it won’t work with my ‘‘foreign’’ card, so I had to withdraw cash, scan the bill, feed the cash back into the machine, and walk away with a receipt and some coins. Such is ‘‘progress’’.

‘‘But you could use internet banking!’’ Well, I would, except that the internet uses a fundamentally insecure routing protocol, and diverting a ‘‘juicy’’ URL like a bank’s is far easier than it should be. Ergo, I refuse to use internet banking (phone banking is fine – much harder to divert).

Michael Poole, Paraparaumu Beach [abridged]

Investment in housing

Contemplating the impact of QV ratings which artificially raise the price of land in Wellington makes me think the city council needs to consider its role in creating problems for those who want to buy a home and for ratepayers.

The value of my property was inflated by 67 per cent between the current and last valuation, creating a ‘‘million-dollar‘‘ land value without any attention to the actual topography, cost of building, impact on the environment, and other issues that would be generated by building on a very steep slope.

Future housing would inevitably become quite expensive, while Wellington would lose the trees now growing on that slope which provide shelter for birdlife.

Other problems with housing costs are generated by the way real estate agents now sell property through the tender system or the auction, which brings in competition, often without the competitors even knowing what is being bid by the others when it’s the tender system. This contributes to inflated prices.

Sheeting home the problem to the Government won’t solve these issues, in which the market and self-interest make it difficult for people with modest incomes to live in Wellington.

Is that what the city council wants to achieve? Is there any way to regulate how the industry operates so that it doesn’t induce New Zealanders to invest so many resources in housing?

Dolores Janiewski, Highbury

Another priority

In your zeal to hasten the delayed opening of Transmission Gully to bypass the landslip-prone bottleneck of the present road, perhaps you could also spare a bit of zeal for another landslip-prone bottleneck which is currently even more delayed but not yet on anybody’s radar to fix.

I refer to the section of the North Island Main Trunk railway line between Pukerua Bay and Paekākāriki, known as ‘‘North-South Junction’’.

This bottleneck has been there since the 1880s. It significantly limits the operation of the Kāpiti Line, as well as the national rail freight network, and it is on the same unstable hillside as the road which Transmission Gully was built to avoid.

Please could you place a reminder in every day’s Dominion Post that this also needs some priority to fix.

David Bond, Ngaio

Fish fix

I know a man who claims to have solved the problem of maintaining peace on long car trips (Letters, Jan 27). He starts each journey with a supply of chocolate fish. For each disturbance in the back seat, he throws one fish out the window – the kids get what’s left on arrival. Reckons it works like a charm.

Ken Klitscher, Masterton