Progressive bypasses unions with offer to workers

Supermarket giant Progressive Enterprises has sent its latest wage offer directly to its locked out distribution workers in a move which bypasses their unions.

The workers went on strike on August 25, to protest their right to negotiate a national collective agreement for the distribution centres in Auckland, Palmerston North, and Christchurch.

Progressive, which is owned by Woolworths Australia, and operates Foodtown, Countdown and Woolworths here, locked the workers out three days later.

On Monday night the company offered the workers a 3.5 per cent pay increase but remained adamant that a collective agreement was not negotiable.

Yesterday the two unions representing the workers, the National Distribution Union (NDU) and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), rejected the offer.

The workers were disappointed with the offer which ignored the issues at the heart of the debate, said NDU national secretary Laila Harre.

"No offer is made on the fundamental issue of parity in allowances between the sites."

The 3.5 per cent pay offer would effectively be a pay cut, as it did not keep pace with inflation, she said.

Progressive managing director Marty Hamnett said that before negotiations got under way, the unions signed an agreement allowing for communication between the parties.

The company has couriered letters directly to the nearly 600 affected workers, saying it wants them to be fully informed.

"We believe our offers of a wage increase are fair, reasonable, sustainable, and consistent with the retail industry where pay increases are in the 3 to 4 per cent range," Mr Hamnett said.

"We wanted to make sure that after (the offer) went to the union, it went our employees."

If the unions agreed to drop their demand for a single collective agreement to cover the distribution centres, the lockout would be lifted and employees could return to work, he said.

The workers already had pay parity - the difference in the total pay package was a result of varying allowances which had developed over time in response to the different working environments, Mr Hamnett said.

Ms Harre said Progressive had no agreement with the union which allowed them to make offers directly to employees.

"This is a bottom-line issue in terms of the integrity of collective bargaining," she said.

"It is utterly illegal, and designed to try and undermine the authority of the union and the collective bargaining process. It's not going to work."

Ms Harre said the union would be challenging the move legally, but not before it knew the outcome of an Employment Court hearing next Tuesday into the legality of Progressive's decision to lock out the workers more than two weeks ago.

"This company needs to be told, by somebody with the power to tell them, to pull their head in," she said.

"Obviously if the lockout is declared unlawful, that will substantially shift the dynamics in bargaining between the parties."

Ms Harre said the union called meetings at the three distribution centres yesterday and gave workers a full briefing on Progressive's offer.

They were "insulted" by the offer and most had ripped up the letters sent out to them by Progressive, she said.

"The employers' tactic of sending this (offer) directly to workers is simply going to backfire on them, yet again, because they do not understand the workers that they are dealing with."

The workers asked the union to go back to Progressive again to talk about all issues and enter into good faith bargaining on a national collective contract.

"Frankly I'm not optimistic."

Meanwhile, mediation talks between NDU and Progressive are scheduled for tomorrow as about 4200 in-store supermarket workers want a 7 per cent pay rise, retention of long-service leave and a national collective agreement.

- NZPA