The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has ruled in favour of the New Zealand Meat Workers Union, saying that meat processor Affco has failed in its good faith obligations in relation to the core collective employment agreement covering its plants.
Affco had introduced an individual employment agreement which, it claimed, exemptedworkers from first-on-first-off seniority provisions in the collective contract. A $1000 bonus was offered to signatories.
An Employment Court ruling has since found that seniority provisions applied to workers on both contracts.
Authority member James Crichton said he had no hesitation in concluding that Affco's behaviour was a breach of good faith and destructive of the collective agreement "by promoting an alternative which is significantly more attractive to the vast majority of workers. If the difference between the two documents had been less than graphic, I might have reached a different conclusion".
He said choice was no bad thing but "it must be a viable one and not create an option which really casts one of the alternatives as the ugly sister".
A compliance order was issued saying Affco is to provide process workers, however employed, with "accurate and balanced information about the various types of employment contracts on offer" and to comply with the collective agreement when it re-hires workers after a seasonal lay-off.
Another order said workers should not be required to sit a drug test at the start of a season and should negotiate with the union if it wished that to happen. Mr Crichton noted in his decision that a previous judgment had said that competency and satisfaction of workers was to be dealt with during the season, not at re-engagement.
Affco may appeal the decision to the Employment Court.
