Wellington City Council breaches employment law - union forced to apply for compliance order

The Public Service Association (PSA) has applied to the Employment Relations Authority for a compliance order after Wellington City Council (WCC) breached employment law by refusing to notify staff that collective bargaining had begun.

Richard Wagstaff, PSA National Secretary, said “The PSA has made repeated requests for Wellington City Council to fulfil their legal obligations, but they have refused to do so,”

“Wellingtonians proudly elected a Council that publicly committed to being a good employer and paying the Living Wage to their staff, but management are failing to follow suit.

“WCC have refused to allow the Collective Employment Agreement to cover most groups of council staff.

“Our members want to bargain together, as is their legal right, so we notified the council of this. They had 10 days to inform their staff, but have refused to do so despite repeated requests.

“We’re looking forward to fixing pay rates well below market medians and substandard conditions, but we can’t do that until WCC get to the bargaining table with us.

“WCC are failing at one of the simplest tasks required of an employer – MBIE even offer a template that can be emailed to staff or put on the intranet.

“Hard working council staff just want their employment rights recognised – it is time for WCC to come to the table,” said Richard Wagstaff.

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