Kate Wilkinson MP
National Party Labour & Industrial Relations Spokeswoman

5 September 2007

Loophole means secret strikes are okay

National Party Labour and Industrial Relations spokeswoman Kate Wilkinson is calling for the Government to close a legal loophole which prevents employers from suspending employees who conduct “secret strikes”.

She is referring to an Employment Relations Authority ruling which upheld the rights of New Zealand Post Postal delivery workers to strike without their bosses knowing and that they were entitled to receive full pay for the time that they were on “secret strike”.

The decision last month revolved around posties who collected their deliveries then popped them back in public mail boxes, thereby frustrating mail delivery.

“The employer suspended the secretly striking workers only after learning of the strike. But the authority held that the suspension could only be prospective, not retrospective.

“Therefore, the workers who ‘re-posted’ the mail they were entrusted with had to be paid their wages.

“This farcical situation needs to be remedied. If employers can suspend workers who openly strike they should similarly able to suspend workers who conduct 'secret strikes'.”

Ms Wilkinson posed questions on the issue to Labour and Industrial Relations Minister Ruth Dyson in Parliament today.

“Does she think it is fair that secret striking workers sabotaging a business cannot be suspended but striking workers who give notice can?”

Ruth Dyson confirmed that in her view ‘when a worker is on strike the employer must be able to suspend them’.

“Well, this case shows that currently this is not the case, and according to the Employment Relations Authority, the current legislation means that employers are ‘vulnerable to a sudden strike amounting to surprise or guerrilla tactics’.

“Labour needs to fix this loophole.”

ENDS

Attached: Employment Relations Authority – 13 pages (PDF)

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