Southland meat processor South Pacific Meats (SPM) has been ordered to pay $20,000 for blocking union workers from its Awarua plant.
The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found SPM breached the Employment Relations Act 2000 by imposing unreasonable access restrictions on the right of a
New Zealand Meat Workers and Related Trade Union representative.
SPM had already been penalised and issued compliance orders by the ERA in February 2012 on union access to the plant.
In the latest case, the union had sought a compliance order requiring SPM to refrain from unreasonably denying or restricting access, and that union representatives be permitted to address workers in the main canteen or smoko room.
It also sought penalties in relation to what it said were a number of breaches of its statutory entitlement to access during the period September to November 2013.
The access problems were encountered by the union's Otago/Southland branch president, Daryl Carran, who had visited the Awarua plant for several years.
SPM denied it had unlawfully prevented union access to the workplace or breached its obligations of good faith.
The company said it imposed conditions on all plant visitors which were mandatory to ensure its compliance with relevant Overseas Market Access Requirements (OMARs) imposed by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) and by the food manufacturing standards (FMS) of Tesco, the global grocery retail chain, which is a major SPM customer.
ERA member David Appleton found the conditions imposed on Mr Carran's access by plant manager Kevin Hamilton exceeded the safety and health procedures and requirements SPM needed to apply.
While it was legitimate to take steps to ensure Mr Carran's access to the workplace did not result in contamination of the clothes of workers who worked in edible departments, this could have simply been ensured by providing Mr Carran with laundered overalls, as it provided to other lawful visitors, Mr Appleton said.
The refusal to issue Mr Carran with compliant overalls, knowing it would limit his access to the majority of the workers, amounted to ''bad faith'' by SPM and attempts to prevent Mr Carran from addressing staff as a whole in the canteen were ''unwarranted and illegitimate''.
The ERA imposed a penalty of $10,000, to be paid to the union by SPM for its continued failures to provide Mr Carran with compliant overalls, and $10,000 for continued acts preventing Mr Carran from addressing the workers as a group.
SPM was ordered to comply with the Act regarding union access to its Awarua site; make compliant overalls available to visiting union representatives to enable them to mingle with workers in the edible departments of the Awarua site during their lunch breaks; allow the union representative to time each visit to coincide with workers' lunch breaks; and permit the union representative to address the workers in the main canteen or smoko room.
