Nothing credible offered by Air New Zealand

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union will be pursuing legal action against Air New Zealand after last-ditch negotiations with the company yesterday and today could not produce a proposal with sufficient detail for workers affected.

During the negotiations the airline’s negotiating team were unable to provide information that would tell individual workers how the proposed changes would affect them personally and whether they could volunteer for redundancy.

EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little says it would’ve been impossible to take anything meaningful back to union members.

“Rob Fyfe has claimed the company offered a ‘blueprint for success’ but when all that was offered were non-specific changes to work hours and pay rates, all we had was barely a sketch drawing”

“To be fair the managers we were negotiating with acted honourably but seemed to be hamstrung, and in the end they just didn’t seem to have the authority to give us a definitive answer.”

A significant element of the union’s case against Air New Zealand hinges on documents that appear to show the company planned to misuse the consultation clause of the Ground Service Collective Employment Agreement to open negotiations at a time when members could not take legally protected industrial action.

“A possible outcome of this action may be a restart of the consultation and with it the opportunity to make sure it is done properly and with all the relevant information. This could well lead to a changed position.” Little says.

The case is set down to last five days and will be open to the media.

ENDS

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