By DEBORAH DIAZ and LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK
The country's largest union will test the strength of new employment laws next month when it challenges media giant Independent News (INL).
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union labelled INL one of the country's worst nine employers during Employment Relations Bill submissions this year.
When the bill becomes law next month, the union plans to step up its campaign against the "Nasty Nine" - with INL the first target.
The problem, says union national secretary Andrew Little, is that INL's once-unionised workforce are on individual or weakened collective contracts after 10 years of the Employment Contracts Act (ECA).
INL had made a concerted effort to weaken collectives. Tactics included offering new staff extra money to sign individual contracts.
During bill submissions, the union said the publisher was one of the worst firms at using the ECA in "bad faith."
The chief operating officer of INL, Rick Neville, declined to comment on union plans to restore a collective workforce.
In a statement, he said the company had become unpopular with the union after refusing to maximise the number of staff on union-negotiated collective contracts.
"Terms and conditions of employment in INL are good, evidenced by the fact that we have no problems in recruiting and retaining talented staff," said Mr Neville.
It is understood staff are now looking at a single collective covering INL subsidiaries, which publish most of the country's newspapers.
Such multi-employer collective agreements have been reintroduced under the new worker-friendly employment legislation, which becomes law on October 2, and have been criticised by the Employers Federation as a return to the days of national awards.
Mr Little said that returning to a stronger, collective contract made sense "given INL's behaviour."
Other companies in the "nasty" list included Telecom and lines company ERG Connect, both criticised for reducing their unionised workforces.
The union said Telecom had made high-performing union delegates redundant and refused to negotiate collective contracts.
ERG's anti-union tactics included a manager locking out workers, driving a truck at a picket line, sacking delegates, fiddling timesheets, building fences to keep out union reps and ordering people who crossed him to sweep the yard.
The other employers fingered were meat processor Alliance Group (Invercargill), forestry company Juken Nissho (Gisborne), Sensation Yachts (Auckland), health food firm Sanitarium, industrial switching manufacturer VA Tech Reyrolle Pacific (Wellington) and TCI Plastics (Auckland).
Mr Little said yesterday that ERG had apologised and, with the Alliance Group, was working to improve industrial relations.
The Herald asked the remaining "nasties" whether they thought they deserved to be on the list.
Staff surveys showed high levels of satisfaction, said Telecom spokeswoman Linda Saunders. "We pay them well and many people are keen to join the company."
Sanitarium would not have survived for 100 years if it was an abominable employer, said New Zealand regional manager Jim Richards. 'We've been here for that long, and have an admirable record in terms of relationships with employees - nothing we are at all ashamed of."
TCI Plastics paid its 80 staff above-industry rates, said general manager Tomas Mendes. "I take [being on the list] as a compliment actually. There was probably not very many people who would stand up to them."
Sensation Yachts would like more credit for improvements made during a rapid expansion from 60 to 400 employees, said human resources manager Marie Park. "It's very disappointing. Yes, we've made mistakes but we've also worked hard to get things right."
Juken Nissho's human resources manager, Mike Fisher, said he was surprised the company had been named. "There are many examples I could quote where we as a company are quite union-friendly."
VA Tech Reyrolle's Roger Gree is taking the matter up with the union. "It's quite groundless, really. What they have based that on is just nonsense. I think it's pretty mischievous, considering we get along quite well."
ERG Connect general manager Brendan Vaughan said all problems with the union had been resolved.
The tag was not true as far as Alliance Group was concerned, said the firm's legal representative, Daniel Hailes. "[The company] has at all times dealt in good faith with its employees."
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