By MATHEW DEARNALEY
Auckland ratepayers have been spared a potentially hefty redundancy claim by rail workers, but unionists will keep battling for a multi-employer industrial deal.
An Employment Court ruling that 102 union members moving to a new Auckland rail operator are not entitled to stay under their multi-employer agreement with Toll NZ and its Tranz Scenic subsidiary has removed any immediate risk of a redundancy payout of $1.5 million.
The Rail and Maritime Transport Union said the workers, as well as 11 non-unionists, wanted to keep their jobs under a transfer to French-owned transport giant Connex.
But it warned before the court case that the Auckland Regional Council would be liable for compensation if the workers were offered inferior conditions.
Their agreement with Toll says they will not be redundant if offered the same or more favourable conditions by a new operator, but the court rejected the union's contention that this entitled them to remain under multi-employer industrial coverage.
Union secretary Wayne Butson said his side was "gutted" by the ruling, which would erode a hard-won agreement covering 3000 workers - the private sector's largest multi-employer deal.
The importance of the case was underlined by appearances before a full bench of judges by the Council of Trade Unions and Business New Zealand, representing employers.
Mr Butson told the Herald the union would, at negotiations due to start with Connex in Auckland today, seek a common expiry date of next June 30 between a new deal and the multi-employer agreement.
He said the union would recommend that members not take any unlawful wildcat industrial action for now, as some threatened to do last month after Toll refused to let them go under their existing agreement.
Toll argued that it was not in its interests to be aligned with competitors under a multi-employer deal.
Mr Butson said the union had no wish to disrupt Auckland's rail services, and wanted to remove uncertainty for members by starting negotiations with Connex.
But it was reserving a right to appeal against the Employment Court ruling if it found sufficient ground.
Gaining a common expiry date, to which he believed Connex was obliged to agree, would allow the union to take industrial action if needed next year to regain multi-employer coverage.
Although the court granted an urgent hearing to let Connex start running trains this month, Mr Butson said the transfer was likely to take longer to allow staff reasonable time to consider an employment offer once negotiations were over.
The workers returned letters containing a previous offer from Connex in the same unopened envelopes as termination notices from Toll, which the Employment Court accepted may have been sent prematurely.
Connex spokeswoman Penny Hartill confirmed it would offer the same or more favourable conditions and said Connex was looking forward to working with the regional council "to enhance passenger rail transport in Auckland".
The company has new uniforms ready for staff and will be required in the first instance to ensure at least 85 per cent of trains run on time or no more than five minutes late.
Decision clears way for train changes
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