Members of Unite union and supporters protested outside a Victoria St West hotel in Auckland on Thursday afternoon, claiming management had pressured staff to opt out of fair pay agreements. Photo / John Weekes
Members of Unite union and supporters protested outside a Victoria St West hotel in Auckland on Thursday afternoon, claiming management had pressured staff to opt out of fair pay agreements. Photo / John Weekes
Members of Unite union and supporters picketed a hotel in downtown Auckland today, claiming management pressured workers into opting out of fair pay agreements.
But a manager said staff were “perplexed” at the protest outside the President Hotel and rejected claims any such directive about fair pay agreements existed.
“We’vebeen notifying employers about the hospitality fair pay agreements (FPA),” Unite national secretary John Crocker said outside the Victoria St West hotel this afternoon.
Unite said it had evidence of hotel management “pressuring” workers to opt out of the FPA.
Crocker said employers in the sector received a letter from the union and a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) form outlining how the new agreements worked.
“It’s a very big sector and we’ve just got a breadth of employer attitudes,” Crocker said.
He said some companies engaged constructively with staff and wanted to find common ground.
“Some actually want to treat their employees well, which is good. Others will just grind whatever they can out of their workers, bully them, push them down.”
Crocker said workers could opt out of FPAs but pressuring them to opt out was illegal.
There was a queue of guests inside the hotel at the desk waiting to check in while the protest was on.
The President Hotel is part of CPG Hotels.
A hotel staff member directed queries to CPG group, where a group operations manager said he was puzzled by the protest, as were his staff.
He was investigating but said there was absolutely no directive to pressure staff into rejecting FPAs.
“The staff here at the hotel thought it was just a demonstration that stopped [on its way somewhere else].”
He said a manager whose first language was not English provided a staff member with paperwork to sign off and “a little bit of cross-wires” might have resulted.
He said on further investigation it seemed the union was misguided in this case and may have misinterpreted some communications.
Fair pay agreements will cover workers at accommodation, cafes, restaurants, takeaways, pubs, event catering companies, casinos and cinemas, with a few exceptions.
The President Hotel says Unite union is misguided and has got the wrong end of the stick. Photo / John Weekes
The agreements cover standard hours for paid work, training and development, available leave, health and safety requirements, plus flexible working arrangements and redundancy.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment approved Unite union’s application to begin bargaining for a fair pay agreement in late May.
Business owners have to communicate with workers covered under the agreement to ascertain if they are part of a union and if so, notify those unions that FPA talks are under way.
They are also expected to notify affected workers as soon as possible that FPA talks are under way and must do so by 30 working days after they have been notified by the initiating union.
Under proposed rules, if a public interest test is met, or 10 per cent or at least 1000 workers in an industry or occupation decide to start a negotiation process with employers, negotiations must happen.
Minimum pay and working conditions will be ratified if a majority of both employers and employees in a sector agree to them.
Business NZ has opposed the deals, objecting to the compulsory nature of FPAs and saying the framework deprives smaller businesses of flexibility in negotiations.
The rules are mandatory and businesses failing to comply could be fined up to $40,000.
Further details on the hospitality fair pay agreement are at the MBIE website.
