New Zealand - 2011

The centre right Government elected in late 2008 responded to the 2009 financial crisis by conducting broad discussions with employers and some union leaders on how to minimise economic impacts. Unions at that time cooperated with employment initiatives such as a subsidised nine day working fortnight, but the lack of investment in job creation, cuts in public services, and employment law changes that restrict employment rights reflect the Government’s pro-employer agenda. The general unemployment rate is 6.8% and 25% for those under 20 years.

Increased use of contract workers: Private and public sector employers are increasingly hiring workers as contractors rather than employees. Contractors are not covered by provisions of most New Zealand employment law including the right to organise, the right to take collective action, and the right to lodge personal grievance cases for wrongful dismissal. They are also not entitled to sick or holiday leave or overtime payments.

Difficulties with union access: In theory unions can access workplaces and can sign up workers as members. In practice, many employers oppose this and prevent easy access to members including requiring union officials to be accompanied at all times in entering a workplace and controlling the space and circumstances for union meetings with members. Some unions have already reported obstructive attitudes by employers prior to new access requirements coming into force on 1 April 2011. One employer Pacific Flight Catering blocked union access to the workplace for over two years until being required to grant access following legal action. Union visits to that workplace are still heavily monitored and supervised and a police check of the union official was required. Open Country Cheese attempted to prevent access to the Dairy Workers Union (DWU) union officials in June 2009 until the Employment Relations Authority ruled that access should be permitted. Other unions report oversight or impediments to workplace visits. The amendments to the Employment Relations Act in 2010 will only aggravate the situation (see “trade union rights in law”).

Pressure not to join a union:

Some employers have pressured workers not to join unions by offering individual employment contracts at similar or better rates than those stipulated in the collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
agreements. There have also been reports of workers being treated unfairly after joining a union, which discourages other workers from joining. In addition, employers have assigned union members to less favourable rosters or have dismissed them during the 90 days probation period.

It is difficult to take effective legal action against employers, and few employees are willing to risk their employment to do this. There have, however, been successful cases. In a significant case in 2008 a worker at McDonalds challenged her employer for trying to influence her not to join the Unite Union. The union took the matter to the Employment Relations Authority and won NZD 15,000 in compensation from the company for breaching the undue influence provisions of the Employment Relations Act.

Collective bargaining obstructed:

In September 2009 the Dairy Workers Union (DWU) sought agreement from Open Country Cheese to negotiate a collective employment agreement for their employees. The company opposed collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
at the site and responded by locking out the employees when the union lodged notice of strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike action. The lock-out was ruled illegal by the Employment Relations Authority on the basis that the company was not engaging properly in the bargaining process. The DWU won the right to collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
but the company which had announced restructuring during the dispute did not re-employ all the workers. Some workers took redundancy in confidential settlements. Only 6 of 34 workers retained employment with the company. Continued opposition by the employer to collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
through 2010 has resulted in the workers leaving the collective agreement and taking up individual contracts. Open Country Cheese is now fully de-unionised.

As a result of the ERA (Film Industry) Amendment Act 2010 which came into force immediately, film industry workers were denied the opportunity to bargain for a collective employment agreement or be represented by a union in employment negotiations.