Employment mediators already at work

By CHRIS DANIELS

New employment mediation offices are already being asked to help solve disputes, less than a day after the new Employment Relations Act came into force.

General manager of the new Employment Relations Service, Ralph Stockdill, said 12 applications for mediation had already been accepted by the service.

The Auckland office had accepted eight mediation applications and Wellington and Christchurch, two each. There were 1207 telephone inquiries.

The applications for mediation relate to new industrial disputes covered by the Employment Relations Act. Existing disputes under the old law could still go to the Employment Tribunal.

The mediation service stresses confidentiality and Mr Stockdill would say nothing about the applicants or their disputes.

The new law says mediation is to be "the first process to occur for any employment dispute" and can be used by either workers or employers.

Despite being the first day of unions gaining legal access to workplaces, there were no reports of organisers storming into previously off-limits employees.

National secretary of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, Andrew Little, said the union would be taking "a strategic" approach to recruiting new members.

"We're not in the business of storming the barricades and taking the battering ram to employers' doors but what we will be doing is saying 'we have a right of access and we'd like to come in'."

Mr Little said employers would need to change their attitudes if they wanted the new law to work for them. Potential members would be unlikely to respond well to any aggressive approach from union recruiters.

While there was no single sector that would get special attention from the union, those employers that had had "the worst attitude problem in the past" would also notice the biggest difference.

Employers' Federation president Robyn Leeming said many employers, especially those who hired only a few people, were not entirely familiar with how the new law worked.

"I think we are not going to see any changes for some time and those changes we do see will be fought out in the courts."

It would take time for employers, most of whom ran small businesses, to get up to speed on the "hugely complex" 191-page bill.

"We are saying - simply be cautious, don't rush into anything."

Big companies usually had a history of dealing with unions, had human resources departments and experts easily available.

Greater union access to the workplace was not a problem, said Robyn Leeming, but new procedures and obligations to staff could cause confusion.

One of the traditionally more militant union organisations, the Trade Union Federation has joined forces with the employers to fight the proposed Singapore Free Trade Agreement, which it says will force factory closures and redundancies.

Herald Online feature: Employment Relations Act

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