| Restrictions | OK |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Employment Relations Authority - Auckland |
| Reference No | AA 310/07 |
| Hearing date | 25 Jun 2007 |
| Determination date | 05 October 2007 |
| Member | J Scott |
| Representation | A McInally ; P Jagose |
| Location | Hamilton |
| Parties | New Zealand Amalgamated Engineering Printing & Manufacturing Union (Inc) v Solid Energy New Zealand Ltd |
| Summary | DISPUTE – Applicant claimed non-striking employees unlawfully suspended and owed wages – Respondent submitted suspended employees as unable to provide normal work – However, admitted limited work could have been found for non-striking employees, but would have meant going to lot of trouble to find small amount of work for small number of people – Respondent argued would be penalised by paying workers to do work not normally performed by them and would be paying them after strike when they did not need to do all work they normally performed - Respondent required to assess what normal work available and if enough for one, some, or all workers engaged in that normal work – Only then could respondent reasonably say insufficient work to justify continuing to offer work to non-striking employees – Authority not satisfied respondent unable to provide non-striking employees work normally performed by them – Immaterial that upon resuming work some employees would be idle because work they would normally do following strike would not be available – Suspension of non-striking employees illegal – Parties directed back to mediation to resolve issue of lost remuneration – Six other employees lawfully suspended for striking, despite claim they did not intend to refuse work until next day – Were parties to strike that had already begun - While unusual for workers to be suspended orally, nothing to require notice in writing at time suspension affected - Mine workers |
| Result | Question answered in favour of applicant ; Parties directed to mediation ; Costs reserved |
| Main Category | Dispute |
| Statutes | ERA s81;ERA s81(1)(a)(i);ERA s81(1)(a)(iv);ERA s81(3);ERA s87;ERA s88 |
| Cases Cited | Ford Motor Co Ltd v Wellington Warehouse Employees IUOW [1984] ACJ 1049;New Zealand Federation of Wood-Pulp, Paper and Related Products Workers Inc v New Zealand Forest Products Ltd [1978] ACJ 31;New Zealand Forest Products Limited v Northern (with exceptions) Wellington and Otago and Southland Woodpulp Paper and Related Products IUOW [1981] ACJ 613;NZ Amalgamated Engineering etc IUOW v Toyota NZ (Christchurch) Ltd [1988] NZILR 1123;NZ Engineering etc IUW v Ford Motor Co of NZ [1978] ACJ 287;NZ Labourers etc IUOW & Ors v Fletcher Challenge Ltd & Ors [1989] 2 NZILR 129;NZ Labourers etc IUOW v Joint Venture Zublin-Williamson [1988] NZILR 629;NZ Meat Processors etc IUOW v Alliance Freezing Co (Southland) Ltd [1990] 1 NZILR 725;NZ Meat Processors etc IUOW v NZ Light Leathers Ltd [1988] NZILR 1359;R v Kelman [1957] NZLR 904 |
| Number of Pages | 15 |
| PDF File Link: | aa 310_07.pdf [pdf 54 KB] |