By MATHEW DEARNALEY
Act MP Rodney Hide has uncovered a ninth Government department which agreed to preferential deals for Public Service Association members, a practice he wants challenged in court.
He has received advice from State Services Minister Trevor Mallard that the Ministry of Economic Development paid lump sums of $700 to PSA members for a total cost of $114,918.
A ministry spokeswoman said the payments were made in March in a two-year collective employment agreement for about 160 PSA members, which contained no wage increase but changes to conditions such as long-service leave.
Mr Mallard denied in answer to a written parliamentary question that any department agreed for staff to receive payments simply for joining or remaining in the union.
But he said some departments signed agreements which included lump sums in recognition of "identifiable benefits arising out of the collective relationship between the employer and the PSA".
He has now identified seven departments which agreed to pay lump sums costing a total of more than $5 million. The others are Inland Revenue, Social Development, Internal Affairs, Corrections, Land and Information, and Conservation, where an agreement offering 1150 PSA and Amalgamated Workers' Union members payments of $1137 over three years was ratified last week.
The State Services Commission has also confirmed that members in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry are paid 0.5 per cent more and that those in the Courts Department receive two extra days off a year.
Mr Hide and National's finance spokesman Dr Don Brash say this is a misallocation of taxpayer money to "bribe" public servants to become unionists.
The Act MP said he had been approached by two disaffected public servants in response to a report in the Herald last week, offering to challenge the deals in court, but he would not name them before meeting them to discuss strategy.
But the deals are also under fire from the National Union of Public Employees, which says it has almost 100 members at the Ministry of Economic Development and fears lump-sum payments undermine efforts to increase wages.
Hide uncovers another PSA deal
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