October 1, 2007

Statistics NZ Staff Take Industrial Action

Workers at Statistics NZ who belong to the PSA are taking industrial action because the department continues to reject their key claims after 12 days of negotiations that began in June.

More than 540 Statistics NZ staff have stopped doing overtime. The industrial action will continue until the department agrees to sit down and negotiate a fair and just settlement.

“A key cause of the industrial action is that Statistics NZ won’t allow the bulk of the staff taking action to negotiate how much they’re paid,” says PSA Assistant National Secretary Jeff Osborne.

Statistics NZ insists that it will determine their salaries. This is contrary to Government policy. The Government expects its departments to negotiate minimum pay rates and to include these in collective employment agreements. “Statistics NZ is not only opposing their staff, who want to negotiate fair pay rates as part of their collective bargaining, it’s also defying Government policy which expects this to happen,” says Jeff Osborne.

The PSA negotiating team is also seeking to retain the extra leave currently provided to staff who have worked at Statistics for five years or more. At present the average period spent working at Statistics NZ is just over two and a half years.

“The department needs to hold onto its experienced staff because they’re a real asset,” says Jeff Osborne. “Cutting additional leave for long serving staff will not help it retain the skills and knowledge held by its senior staff.”
The industrial action is also a protest against Statistics New Zealand paying its field interviewers, who gather statistical information in people’s homes, less than their colleagues who do the same job by phone.

“This is simply unfair,” says Jeff Osborne. “There’s no justification for the department paying its field interviewers up to $4.40 an hour less than it’s office based interviewers when they do the same job.”

The PSA says Statistics NZ treats its field interviewers as second class employees. They’re employed under the Statistics Act while the rest of the department’s staff are employed under the State Sector Act.

“That’s a crucial difference because the State Sector Act obliges the department to be a good employer but the Statistics Act does not,” says Jeff Osborne. “The field interviewers are also covered by a separate collective employment agreement.”

The PSA says all Statistic NZ staff should be employed under the State Sector Act and be covered by a single collective agreement with common core provisions.

Private sector employers actually pay their field interviewers more than their staff who interview by phone. This recognises the complexities of the job and that there are greater risks involved in going into people’s homes to conduct interviews.

Statistics NZ promised it would begin reviewing the work done by its field interviewers in August last year. The review has still not begun, over a year later, and the department now wants to delay until June next year. “This is totally unacceptable,” says Jeff Osborne.“ It shows that Statistics NZ is clearly not serious about treating its field interviewers fairly.”

“The claims being made by the Statistics NZ staff who belong to the PSA are fair and reasonable,” says Jeff Osborne. “They will continue their industrial action until the department agrees to sit down and negotiate a fair and just settlement.”

ENDS

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