KEY POINTS:
Air New Zealand faces a fine of up to $2.7 million after being found to have breached good faith obligations with the Service and Food Workers' Union (SFWU).
The union took a dispute to the Employment Relations Authority (ERL) after 269 Air NZ employees believed by the company to be union members received letters from it.
The letters tempted members to split from the union and either go on individual contracts or join another union.
Two other unions with staff at Air NZ - the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and the Aviation and Marine Engineers Association (AMEA) - had earlier endorsed collective agreements that were seen to help the company avoid a plan to outsource close to 2000 ground handling service jobs.
The SFWU, with 263 members at Air NZ, had not agreed to terms, involving roster changes, that the bulk of the other staff had agreed to.
Air NZ representatives in April this year sent letters to SFWU members saying they would not be entitled to new benefits available to other staff who had agreed to the new "in-house solution".
The letters - which by-passed union management - advised members there was still time to get the benefits of the in-house solution if they resigned from the union.
They were told they could go on individual contracts or join the EPMU and were given a deadline of under two weeks to decide.
The ERA found the letter advised of benefits offered by joining the in-house solution, but didn't mention any detrimental effects.
That was not considered misleading though, as it was obvious the letter's purpose was entice members to leave the union.
The ERA said doing anything with the intention of inducing an employee not to be covered by a collective agreement was a breach of the duty of good faith.
Air NZ's actions were such that they could undermine the role of the union, whose membership was a matter between the union and employees who chose to join it.
The breach was open to a penalty of up to $10,000 and that could be duplicated for each letter sent.
Air NZ and the SFWU now have the opportunity to be heard further on the amount of the penalty to be imposed before the ERA makes the final decision.
SFWU spokeswoman Jill Ovens said today the union would push its case for a hefty penalty and believed the union should be entitled to some of the fine.
"We are going to argue that a substantial amount of that penalty should come to our union... ".
Ms Ovens said Air NZ were aggressive in their attempts to get staff out of the union and as a result the union had lost many members.
"The damage to our union was huge," she said.
The SFWU are negotiating with Air NZ at the moment over a collective package and Ms Ovens said little progress was being made.
Air NZ was also censured by the ERA last month for misrepresenting details about working conditions to new staff following a complaint by the SFWU.
- NZPA
