Talks stance angers union

Press, 18 February 1989, Page 3

Talks stance angers union

By

SARAH SANDS

Employers have betrayed private rest-home workers in their stance, said the secretary of the Canterbury Hotel and Hospital Workers Union, Ms Lianne Dalziel, yesterday. The talks resumed this week after a three-month adjournment, but broke down after two days. Ms Dalziel said the union had known it was taking a risk in agreeing to adjourn the talks beyond the award’s expiry date on January' 6. “But we were assured at the time

that there would be no difficulty in regard to the commencement date of the award,” she said. The employers’ final offer this week was 4.5 per cent from April 1 this year to March 31 next year. “The award for rest-home workers expired on January 6 so this group of employers is effectively asking our members to accept a three-month wage freeze, making their wage offer significantly less than the going rate,” said Ms Dalziel. Members were yet again being

asked to subsidise rest homes by accepting less than other workers, she said. Ms Dalziel said settlement of the award had also been conditional on the acceptance of an employer counter-claim for sickpay that would increase the entitlement for a small number of members but decrease the entitlement for every part-time worker who worked less than five days a week. Stopwork meetings will be held in the next few days to discuss the offer. If rejected, industrial action could be considered.