| Restrictions | OK |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Employment Relations Authority - Wellington |
| Reference No | WA 79/06 |
| Hearing date | 4 Apr 2006 |
| Determination date | 12 May 2006 |
| Member | D Asher |
| Representation | R Searle ; N Brush, T Oldfield |
| Location | Wellington |
| Parties | Guardian Healthcare Group Ltd v New Zealand Nurses Organisation and Anor |
| Other Parties | Service and Food Workers Union Inc |
| Summary | DISPUTE - Essential service - Whether respondents had to provide 14 days notice of intention to strike – Majority of applicant’s facilities were hospitals that offered rest home care - Whether a rest home was an essential service within Schedule 1 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 – Whether joint rest home and hospital facility was an essential service – Whether on-site catering, cleaning and laundry services were “a service necessary for the operation” of a hospital care institution within the meaning of clause 11(b) of ERA Schedule 1 where was also a rest home on same site – Applicant certified to provide hospital care or hospital and rest home care at all its current sites except for sites at which applicant was certified to provide only stand-alone rest home care - Despite the close and operationally often interwoven proximity of hospital and rest home activities, applicant’s position not accepted – Legislation clearly and deliberately differentiated between hospitals and rest homes (whether or not the latter was a stand alone facility or integrated in some way into the operation of a hospital) – Accepted that rest homes and joint rest homes were not essential services within Schedule 1 ERA – Only those parts of a joint facility that actually provided hospital care, and any other parts used for ancillary hospital care purposes, could be defined as a hospital care institution – A rest home was not a service necessary for the operation of hospital care institution within the meaning of ERA, where there was a joint facility on the same site – Whether on-site catering, cleaning and laundry services were services necessary for the operation of a hospital care institution was largely a question of fact |
| Result | Question answered accordingly ; Costs reserved |
| Statutes | ERA Schedule 1;ERA Schedule 1 cl11(a);ERA Schedule 1 cl14;Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act 2001 s58(4);Old People's Homes Regulations 1987;The Hospitals (Eligibility for Exemption) Notice (No 2) 1996 |
| Number of Pages | 13 |
| PDF File Link: | wa 79_06.pdf [pdf 55 KB] |