Eighty-four Northland Department of Conservation workers will use Conservation Week to highlight their concerns that New Zealand's great outdoor public estate is being run on the cheap.
They will be among 1500 Public Service Association (PSA) members working for DoC nationally who have overwhelmingly voted to take industrial action today,
in the middle of New Zealand's Conservation Week.
The action will involve working to rule - to paid hours, answering phones and emails in work hours only, taking breaks and other entitlements and doing work related travel only during work hours. The exception will be staff working in essential services or emergency Search and Rescue, Fire or Civil Defence callouts.
The workers are asking for a pay increase of slightly over 2 per cent, down from the initial request for either $1500 or a 3 per cent increase on their base salary.
The PSA has been in negotiations for DoC workers' new collective agreement since early August, with 95 per cent of the union members voting against a proposal their employers put forward.
