State unions accept 7 p.c. pay rise offer

Press, 11 April 1987, Page 1

State unions accept 7 p.c. pay rise offer

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

The Combined State Unions and the Government reached agreement yesterday on pay adjustments for State employees and on changes to State pay-fixing legislation.

This agreement had been ratified by the C.S.U., said its chairman, Mr Colin Hicks. Details of the agreement were released by the Minister of State Services, Mr Rodger. It covers both the level of increase to be granted State employees in the present pay round, and changes to be made to the legislation applying to both the new State corporations and the rest of the State services. Pay rates for most State groups have been increased 7 per cent as from January 15, 1987. The next increase for the groups getting the 7 per cent, including any further general adjustment that may be negotiated, will be able to apply from no earlier than November 10, 1987. State unions have

agreed not to pursue any specific claims for the 7 per cent groups; State employers will not initiate any reviews for the 7 per cent group in the present pay round. But the 7 per cent increase will not apply to a small number of groups, whose pay rates traditionally have been negotiated separately from the main State pay round. This includes such groups as meat inspectors and ships’ crews. The 7 per cent increase will also not apply automatically to the salaries paid to staff of the new corporations by the corporations. But corporation staff employed in the State services before April 1, when the new corporations began, will be entitled to the appropriate back pay-

Any implications the 7 per cent increases may have for corporation salaries will be a matter for agreement between each corporation and the appropriate service organisations/unions. There is also agreement

employment for staff in a particular work unit will be negotiated afresh and incorporated into a single industrial document. The changes will provide for a new Arbitration Commission and Labour Court to be set up under the Labour Relations Bill — now before a Parliamentary select committee for public scrutiny and comment — to have jurisdiction over the State services. The changes also provide for the conditions of employment for staff of the new corporations to be set out in industrial agreements, rather than State determinations, and for voluntary arbitration to apply to staff of the corporations. These details are set out under a Heads of Agreement document dated April 10.

to make five changes to State pay-fixing legislation this Parliamentary session. These will allow for the negotiation of ranges of pay rates within which rates may vary according to specific recruitment and retention considerations, performance, skill, experience and locality. They will allow for negotiated payments to be made by way of lump sum amounts and nonsalary benefits. They will allow for the negotiated introduction of “enterprise units” in which all conditions of