By KEVIN TAYLOR and NZPA
Much of the attention in the Employment Court case against the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) veterinarians focused on the issue of whether their union's strike notices were invalid because the union was registered before the Employment Relations Act (ERA) officially took effect on October 2.
The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) feared that if the Attorney-General's case against the National Union of Public Employees (Nupe) was successful it would affect union work conducted by 20 unions involving thousands of workers.
CTU president Ross Wilson told the Employment Court in Wellington yesterday: "If successful the proceedings will render invalid countless actions which have been taken in good faith ... by the 20 unions, including some of the largest in the country."
The Public Service Association (PSA) was registered on September 27 under the Act and is in negotiations for up to 100 collective agreements, said Mr Wilson. It had settled a further 20 or 30 agreements since October 3 in the public service, health sector and local government.
"Any finding which implies that the union is not a registered union in terms of the ERA will adversely affect thousands of PSA members."
Another big union had spent a lot of money on a ballot over 200 sites for authority to bargain, and the union was worried some employers would use the confusion over union registration to refuse to bargain.
Nupe secretary Ivan Finlayson told the court last week that the Registrar of Unions encouraged the union to send in its application early.
Mr Finlayson has filed an application to have Nupe deregistered and re-registered with a date after October 2.
Registrar of Unions Michael Hobby yesterday asked the Employment Court not to make a judgment on his actions in registering a union before the ERA came into effect.
A lawyer for the registrar's office, John Marshall, told Employment Court Chief Judge Tom Goddard it would be totally wrong for the court to proceed further on the issue.
But regardless of the wider union and employer issues any failure to bring a permanent resolution of the vets' dispute posed a significant threat to New Zealand's export trade.
Last October the outlook down on the country's sheep and beef farms was the brightest it had been for 10 years.
Prices were up, production was good, overseas demand was high and the exchange rate was favourable.
But with 120 of the 150 veterinarians employed by the key MAF Verification Agency set to take strike action the meat industry's dominoes threatened to tumble, with a chain reaction of events affecting farmers, meatworkers and downstream, rural towns.
The Meat Industry Association and Federated Farmers warned of big damage to New Zealand's meat exports from the strike by the vets, who are among the highest paid group of civil servants in the country.
Federated Farmers says the vets are a gold-plated elite who are holding to ransom the industry and the jobs it provides.
The vets say they have not had a pay rise since 1998, and argue their responsibilities have greatly increased during that time.
Amid the arguments, the dispute is already having an effect.
Meat companies are already losing contracts overseas because of the lack of certainty over the industrial situation, although the association will not say how much companies are losing.
Meat exports earn the country $3.5 billion a year.
The annual lamb trade with Europe alone is worth $1.4 billion, 70 per cent of which is earned by the Easter trade which was targeted by the vets' strike notice.
Brian Lynch, executive director of the Meat Industry Association, says serious damage could be done by the 120 vets, who work at processing plants around the country certifying meat for export.
He says any strike would impact particularly badly on the important sheep and beef farming regions of New Zealand - the Waikato, East Coast, Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa, Marlborough and North Canterbury.
Killing would grind to a halt at New Zealand meatworks, which collectively employ about 20,000 people.
Staff have already been told they may be suspended at some plants.
Farmers will also be hurt. Collectively they stand to lose $20 million to $25 million a day in income, worrying Federated Farmers.
Meat and Fibre chairman Chris Lester says there will be a crisis if a strike ever goes ahead.
"New Zealand gets a quota for exports of lamb to Europe. If we fail for whatever reason to fulfil those contracts Europe will reallocate that quota to our competitors such as Australia and South America.
"New Zealand will lose the confidence factor it currently enjoys with the European companies that buy and distribute our lamb."
Mr Lynch says that longer-term, New Zealand's hard-won reputation as a reliable supplier of quality meat is on the line.
Despite the industry footing the bill for the vets' salaries, one-third of whom are women, it is not involved in negotiations as MAF is their employer.
Without final certification by a public service vet, no company can export meat to New Zealand's major markets in north Asian, North America and the European Union.
"It's literally gun to the head stuff," Mr Lynch says.
New Zealand exports about 750,000 tonnes of meat annually, 500,000 tonnes of which is beef and sheep meat destined for the major markets.
By agreement between major export countries and the Government, New Zealand is required to finally certify the meat is fit for human consumption.
"Regulatory agencies in those countries will not accept any tick-off from anyone other than an agent of central Government," Mr Lynch says.
It may sound like a grand paperwork job, but among the veterinarians' roles are pre and post-mortem examinations of stock, and ensuring animals are processed in a hygienic way.
The vets' union, the National Union of Public Employees, say they want a 10 per cent increase for the first year and 4 per cent in each subsequent year, as well as less overtime.
Mr Lynch says the additional pay demands of the vets would add about $3.6 million a year to the $18 million it already cost for the certification service.
A MAF vet's base salary is around $55,000 to $65,000, but with allowances like overtime about 75 per cent of the vets get more than $80,000 a year gross. Fifteen per cent get paid more than $100,000.
The vets also get shift, standby and meal allowances, although Mr Lynch observes dryly that in the interests of advancing negotiations they are prepared to drop their sock and gumboot allowances.
He says the vets' counterparts in the private sector get 20 to 25 per cent less pay. Nupe argues the opposite.
Secretary Ivan Finlayson says the MAF vets are generally older, more mature people, reflecting the higher pay rates they receive.
They are generally recruited from the ranks of private sector vets.
However, he says as a rule vets in higher levels of responsibility in private practise are paid much more.
Internationally there is a shortage of qualified vets, although MAF says the agency is fully staffed.
This shortage affected New Zealand too, said Mr Finlayson, pointing to the fact that last year MAF recruited overseas for vets in Zimbabwe and Britain.
Asked whether he thought the vets were holding the industry to ransom, Mr Finlayson replied: "Can't you remember a time when Federated Farmers was not complaining?"
He agreed meat exports would halt with a strike, but he pointed out farmers have had a bumper year and it was time some of that profitability was shared.
He says the job has increased considerably in complexity in the past two or three years and there have been no pay rises since 1998.
"If a vet makes a bad decision there are tremendous economic consequences for the company," Mr Finlayson says.
MAF group manager of operations, Grant Burney, says the amounts paid to the vets are justified. In fact MAF is proposing pay rises of 8 per cent for the top two-thirds of staff and 4 per cent for the rest.
They are simply in dispute with Nupe over the amount.
New Zealand has a world-class meat inspection system, but that comes at a cost.
Mr Burney says MAF is simply in the middle of the dispute, and recovers the whole cost of the certification system from the industry.
And he points to a number of other professions - like airline pilots - where a small group of people play a similar key role.
Mr Lynch concedes the structure of the certification system, which ties up so much responsibility with so few, has a bizarre element to it.
"These are a group of people in whose hands rest regulatory power of huge significance."
Privatising the service does not appear to be an option at present.
He says major export customers like the US Department of Agriculture and the European Union Commission are not prepared to import New Zealand meat that has been certified by anyone other than fully fledged public servants.
Mr Lynch says the jobs of thousands of meatworkers, farmers, stock agents and transport companies are now dependent on the small group of vets. "They are trying to hold the industry to ransom."
Vets snared in legality of union strike notices
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