Union wins 'list' scrap with Affco

Affco Wairoa meat-workers who are union members have greater job security over non-union members after an Employment Court ruling released on Monday, says the New Zealand Meat Workers and Related Trades Union.
Judge A.D. Ford of the Auckland Employment Court ruled that Affco had to engage and re-engage union members in accordance with seniority lists that included non-union workers.
The national secretary of the union, Dave Eastlake, said Affco had been favouring workers not in the union. "This decision will put an end to this discriminatory practice," he said. "This recognises long practice in the meat industry, with long-serving workers being entitled to work ahead of new starters."
The union said it would be seeking lost wages for workers who were wrongly laid off.
Affco operations manager Rowan Ogg said it confirmed seniority affected all workers.
"If a person signs an individual employment agreement, their seniority remains intact," he said.
The lists determined the order by which workers were hired and laid off in a season. Senior employees were hired first and laid off last.
Seniority lists were part of the core collective agreement between the New Zealand Meat Workers Union of Aotearoa and Affco's abattoirs.
Union counsel Simon Mitchell described seniority lists in court as "something akin to the Holy Grail by union members".
Affco had claimed the lists did not apply to employees with individual employment agreements.
Affco's group employee relations manager, Graeme Cox, admitted under cross-examination that under the company's approach there was a theoretical possibility that no union employees would be re-engaged in a following season.
Mr Mitchell told the court that lists had historically applied to the whole site, not just union members.
"The purpose of seniority is to take out the guesswork involved in lay-off and re-engagement, and to base it purely on length of service as the criteria," he said.
There were exceptions to the provisions to allow for varying departmental needs.
Judge Ford related his decision to the original intent of the multi-site core collective agreement. He said that seniority was to be afforded only to union members, that seniority was to be determined in relation to all workers on a site and that non-union workers could be laid off and re-employed under criteria other than the collective agreement.
The judgement had been sought by both parties.