KEY POINTS:
The dispute between 110 Yellow Pages call-centre workers, whose jobs have been outsourced to the Philippines, and their managing company, Sitel, got ugly when a brawl broke out in Palmerston North.
The workers were told last month their jobs were being transferred to Manila. They received a further shock when they found out no redundancy was to be offered.
On Wednesday, union representatives arriving at the Telecom building in Main St to talk with workers were denied entrance to the building by Sitel security guards, the Manawatu Standard reports.
The security guards had been posted at the doors with the specific purpose of refusing them entry. Punches were thrown and a security guard allegedly bitten.
Sergeant Chris Pinfold of the Palmerston North police said one person was charged with assault.
The victim was a security guard, who was treated at Palmerston North Hospital for an open wound resulting from a bite to his arm, she said.
The union organiser for the Sitel site, Laurel Reid, said colleagues Wayne Ruscoe and Dereck Picking managed to get inside, but were then stopped by security guards.
Mr Ruscoe was placed in a headlock and whacked in the ear by a security guard, she said.
"This is totally out of the ordinary. We wouldn't expect to have aggression like this from an employer."
An assault complaint had been laid with police against the security guards.
But union solicitor Jills Angus Burney (the Labour Party candidate for Rangitikei), who was left with a bloodstained T-shirt, said it was Mr Ruscoe who was later charged with common assault.
Mr Picking was also involved in the altercation, she said. "I actually saw [Mr Picking] being spear-tackled by four guys. They picked him up off the ground and drove him into the floor."
Union workers were well within their rights to visit members at any time and had given notice they would be visiting Sitel.
A mediation meeting scheduled for Tuesday was snubbed by Sitel management, she said, and the union simply wanted to let its members know how the process was going.
- NZPA
