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Workers at Air Nelson are taking industrial action after rejecting the company's latest wage offer.
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) said its members at the Air New Zealand Link-owned company will take action from midnight on Thursday.
Most of the airline's permanent staff will take part in the action, which will target food freight and engineering and will include an overtime ban as well as a series of four-day long rolling stoppages.
Members voted overwhelming against the offer which the union said amounted to an average of 3.6 per cent a year for 30 months, when the going rate elsewhere was around 5 per cent.
EPMU organiser Strachan Crang said the action comes after 11 days of negotiations, including five days with a mediator.
"The airline -- whether you look at just the subsidiary or you look at the parent company -- has been doing well financially and our members want a pay settlement that reflects this," he said.
The union was seeking a two-year deal of 5.8 percent and 4.8 percent, which includes catch up payments from previously low settlements, he said.
The EPMU has argued that pay rates have been eroded since the independent, Nelson-based Origin Pacific airline collapsed.
Also, that Air Nelson picked up business as a result and its parent , Air New Zealand, was using its market dominance to keep wages down.
Air Nelson general manager John Hambleton said the company had invested $400 million in new aircraft to build the business and it would grow more quickly if the union was constructive.
Contingency plans were in place to minimise the impact of the action on travellers.
He said the company had gone to considerable lengths to engage with the union and it was disappointed by the action.
Air Nelson's pay was fair for a regional airline and compared very well to both national and Nelson income statistics.
Air Nelson employs 462, an increase from 400 in 2005.
The two-and-a-half year deal offered by the company incorporated a wage increase of 3.6 per cent in the first two years and introduced performance pay of up to 3 per cent per year.
- NZPA
