There are some mornings when I step outside myself and look around my town and wonder at how busy and interconnected it is. This morning was one of those mornings.

I headed out just after seven to get a warrant of fitness. I stopped off at the local café to get a coffee.  The barista was already busy and gave me a cheery good morning.  At the testing station a mechanic also said good morning and got cracking on without delay.  The woman at the counter had seen my number plate and had already started the paperwork before I walked in the door.

Waiting for the car a man was mowing the berm. Some service station workers were busy and then I saw a man with three medicine balls walking into the gym equipment store across the road.

Everybody busy working alone yet the result was keeping the whole town moving forward in their own little way.

The way the machine works always blows my mind but today I looked with different eyes as I wondered whether each of these people beavering away were being paid fairly for what they do.

Yesterday the government announced a fair pay working group to be chaired by Sir Jim Bolger to look at what was fair pay on a sector by sector basis.

Fair Pay Agreements will set minimum standards for wages and employment conditions like allowances, weekend and night rates, hours of work and leave arrangements for all workers within industries.

The agreements will be set through collective bargaining between unions and employers within each sector, without the need for bargaining with each individual employer.

Meanwhile, strikes and lockouts will not be permitted in negotiations for Fair Pay Agreements.

Remember we already have a basic fair pay agreements.  It’s covered in the minimum wage legislation and labour laws.

Fair Pay Agreements have been Labour’s policy for a while but as is this government’s style it’s a compromise.  It stops short of being a collective wage bargaining policy because it only determines minimum conditions.

That makes it a double edge sword.  Set minimum conditions too high and employers will feel the squeeze but set them too low and employers will take advantage and pay employees less than they’re actually worth.  Ask the good teachers who are already paid the same as bad ones.

Fair pay is a very subjective thing.  Was the lawnmower I saw this morning worth as much as service station worker or barista?  Was the woman in the testing station who was very efficient at her job worth more than the surly admin staff I’ve met there before? And can anyone in a head office know the various worth of each of us.

I’ve often heard employers talk about great workers  and say they’re worth their weight in gold. The question has always been do employers put their gold where their mouth is.

At the end of the day the working relationship is between individuals and that is where the responsibility for fairness lies.  I feel that when committees take over fair pay negotiations there will be just as many winners and losers as we already have.

By the way.  I got the warrant.