Bitter industrial dispute will go to facilitated bargaining

Twenty-five workers at Anglican Family Care in Dunedin and South Otago are PSA members. File photo / Brett Phibbs

A bitter industrial dispute between Anglican Family Care and the union representing workers will go to facilitated bargaining.

Anglican Family Care and the Public Service Association (PSA) jointly applied to the Employment Relations Authority for facilitated bargaining after a protracted dispute over wages.

Twenty-five workers at Anglican Family Care in Dunedin and South Otago are PSA members.

Negotiations over the workers' collective contract have been ongoing since May last year.

The dispute has seen union members taking industrial action, and workers involved in the action served with suspension notices.

The application to the authority said Anglican Family Care's chief executive, Nicola Taylor, had also received hate mail and "inappropriate responses over social media".

Authority member Christine Hickey accepted there were serious difficulties and that bargaining had been unduly protracted.

Facilitated bargaining is available to parties having serious difficulty settling a collective agreement.