Legal remedy sought

Martin Dippie.
Martin Dippie.
A "legal remedy" is being sought by  First Union over protracted negotiations with Mitre 10 outlets in Dunedin and Mosgiel to  settle the employees’ first collective agreement.

First Union southern region secretary Paul Watson said about 100 full-time staff, plus  part-timers, at the two sites were still waiting to settle their first collective agreement after three years, saying company owner and Mitre 10 chairman Martin Dippie was refusing to adopt a recommendation of the Employment Relations Authority.

"We’re no longer prepared to waste time with a company and employer who has no desire to genuinely conclude a collective agreement with staff who are union members.

"We’ll be pursuing an alternative legal remedy," Mr Watson said.

The two Mitre 10 outlets trade under Jacks Hardware and Timber.

Mr Dippie was contacted in Auckland yesterday, and in a statement said Jacks Hardware and Timber wanted to reach an agreement on the outstanding matters as much as the First Union did.

"We’re making progress and at this stage the window of differences has been reduced from 14 to just two points," Mr Dippie said, noting the Employment Relations Authority’s involvement had been "helpful".

Mr Dippie believed  collective bargaining was ongoing and he was looking forward to resolving the last remaining differences on a good-faith basis.

"We’re confident this can be achieved through the ongoing process," Mr Dippie said.

Mr Watson was asked to outline details of the "legal remedy" but could only confirm an application to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) was  being drafted by lawyers.

He said bargaining started in 2013 and in 2015 Mitre 10 attempted to "unilaterally end collective agreement negotiations" with First Union, but the Employment Court ruled that unlawful and ordered both parties to attend facilitation in the ERA.

Mr Watson said while the parties had "managed to agree on a number of issues" in the ERA, he claimed Mitre 10 was still refusing to write  a "tiered" pay scale into the collective agreement, despite the ERA facilitator having recommended a two-tier scale.

"Where an employer simply refuses to genuinely negotiate a collective agreement, working people have few remedies," Mr Watson said.

BusinessDesk reported the prospect of a collective agreement had been new for Jacks Hardware as a family-owned store, with the company baulking at the union’s initial proposals, estimating they would add $2million to its annual wage bill of $5.6million if passed on to the wider workforce, an evaluation later found to be out of date and inaccurate. Many of the staff were paid between $14 and $16 an hour, marginally above the minimum hourly wage, BusinessDesk reported.

Negotiations broke down when Jacks Hardware declared the talks to have ended to avoid a pre-Christmas strike in 2015, something the Employment Court later said breached its good faith obligations.

Mr Watson yesterday said the issue of business owners dragging out negotiations and refusing to settle needed a law change and Mr Watson was backing Iain Lees-Galloway’s private member’s Bill, the Employment Relations (Rates of Pay in Collective Agreements) Amendment Bill.

simon.hartley@odt.co.nz

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