Stalling award a ‘saving’

Press, 24 March 1988, Page 8

Stalling award a ‘saving’

PA . | • : ( Wellington ii Meat industry employers are saving about $500,000 a week by delaying settlement, of a national award, says the secretary iiof[ the Meat Workers’ Union, Mr ( Jack Scott. 1

Ballots will be held at all freezing! works' between ' now and April ijl on the Meat Industry Association’s!refusal to retain clause 13; which allows individual plant bonus! schemes alongside the award in the national award! i : ~ An j association cate, Ms Anne Knowles,' said the clause could not be included (in the award because it; represented two-tier bargaining, no longer allowed under trie Labour Relations Act. ( “Now we can have only one set of negotiations io arrive at —• one document that is] then registerable and enforceable,”? | Ms Knowles said. ! ' Clause 13 allowed individual plants to come to their own! productivity agreements,] and these payments could make tip as much as 50 per cent of a wage, she said. “Those agreements are negotiated on a local basis and reflect (the different systems each plant ] has 1 ,” Ms Knowles said. ! But the union wanted to

negotiate everything nationally. Ms Knowles said it would not be possible to have an award big enough to incorporate all the different plant agreements. Mr Scott denied this, saying that only the titles of local agreements needed to Ke attached to a national award. "The employers are living in cuckooland and they never come out to see what is happening out here,” he said. ; Members of the union were strongly opposed to having clause 13 removed from the (national award, he' said. . | : (,! I] L ! "If the; Meat Industry Association .wants to destroy the? union and its members by attacking the national award, (we see no reason not.to drag them down with’ us.” ] It was an absolute disgrace that the settlement had been delayed so long, he said.' ■ | ■.( I . Tentative agreement on a pay increase of $2(4.13 a week, or about 4 per cent, has already been reached.