A union representing workers of council-controlled organisation Nelmac has taken its long-running grievance over a collective agreement to the Employment Court. Photo / Tracy Neal
A union representing workers of council-controlled organisation Nelmac has taken its long-running grievance over a collective agreement to the Employment Court. Photo / Tracy Neal
The union representing workers of a council-controlled organisation has made what it calls a last-ditch effort to get management to listen to its grievances.
The Reunited Employees Association (REA) has made a plea to the Employment Court to help address what it describes as injustices served on its members by the leadership of environmental management services company Nelmac.
“This is our last port of redress,” said the union’s assistant secretary Kathleen Drummond in her opening statement.
In November 2021 the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found that the REA had breached the duty of good faith in its post-facilitation conduct toward Nelmac, some of whose employees are members of the REA, while others belong to a different union.
The REA has been seeking parity with wage rates and allowances in the collective agreement Nelmac has with another union, the Amalgamated Workers Union NZ.
A union representing workers at a council-owned trading company has been seeking parity with wage rates and allowances in the collective agreement it has with another union. Photo / Dean Purcell
The contentious issue remained problematic, the ERA said in 2021, when it also fixed the terms of the collective agreement between Nelmac and the REA.
The lawyer acting for Nelmac, Nick Mason, told NZME it was the first time in legal history a union has been found in breach of good faith bargaining.
The REA has now appealed the authority’s decision of November 2021 to the Employment Court, which began hearing arguments in Nelson today.
Nelmac is a Nelson-based council-controlled trading organisation that provides environmental management services to recreation, conservation and public water infrastructure facilities.
It currently partners with the Nelson City Council, the Tasman District Council and the Marlborough District Council.
The court heard today of personality clashes the union felt had emerged since the arrival of a new management regime at Nelmac.
A gardener employed by Nelmac between 2013 and last year and a union delegate for staff working in one of Nelmac’s regional locations told the court today of his shock at being told that legal costs incurred by the company would affect pay increases.
Kathleen Drummond said the union members had been “seriously disadvantaged and discriminated against”.
She said there had to be some way for the union to get justice for all these problems.
“If they’re not dealt with, it will be the demise of the union,” she told the court in her opening statement.
The REA says that historically it had a “robust but productive relationship” with the Nelson City Council and then Nelmac, particularly when it came to bargaining over the terms of any collective agreement.
However, from 2017 the relationship became “fractious and problematic” as the lead negotiators for Nelmac then were not “inclined” towards the REA, the Employment Relations Authority said in its decision of 2021.
The REA said this led to unnecessary involvement of lawyers for Nelmac and a near end to any direct communication about operations and how that informed the implementation of any collective agreement, which in turn impacted on bargaining.
The REA said as a result, bargaining and discussions about employment-related issues have been, and continue to be, extremely challenging for the REA, resulting in serious injustice to its members.
Nelmac denied the union’s position that a poor relationship had evolved and said it had not breached the collective agreement.
It also believed it had tried hard to sort out the problems.
It said while bargaining for the new collective agreement had been difficult, a stumbling block emerged while progress was being made and then the union raised a last-minute new claim for pay increases.
Nelmac blamed the union for the impasse and said that bargaining had broken down because of its actions.
The ERA said that while it accepted Nelmac sometimes took an “aggressive and combative approach” with the REA during bargaining, particularly in the early meetings, it hadn’t had an overall impact on the progress of bargaining.
