| Restrictions | OK |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Employment Relations Authority - Wellington |
| Reference No | WA 39/08 |
| Hearing date | 27 Mar 2008 |
| Determination date | 09 April 2008 |
| Member | G J Wood |
| Representation | T Oldfield ; R Gibson |
| Location | Wellington |
| Parties | Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota Inc v Heinz Wattie's Ltd |
| Summary | DISPUTE – Parties agreed on statement of facts prior to Authority investigation – Applicant disputed respondent’s right to modify stock movers duties without employee’s agreement – Applicant did not agree proposed changes involved change to work patterns – Authority to determine whether respondent’s intentions to ensure no shortage of stock movers permissible under collective employment agreement (“CEA”) – Authority concluded changes to workers positions, classifications or gradings could only be made, without recourse to redundancy provisions, pursuant to Clause 67 of CEA – Clause 67 allowed respondent to downgrade positions – Authority concluded Clause 8 did not allow respondent to change workers jobs without agreement on basis of McCain Foods [2004] 2 ERNZ 252 – Found CEA’s redundancy provisions almost identical to those assessed in McCain therefore determination binding authority that clause policy rather than operational – Authority concluded if parties intended downgrading to apply across classifications would have said so – Found while Clause 67.4 gave respondent right to combine group of classified jobs into one job where suited operations this applied only to jobs within a classification – Found respondent’s intentions inconsistent with terms of CEA – Authority declared respondent unable to unilaterally direct identified applicant’s members to change their duties as proposed – Orders in favour of applicant |
| Result | Orders in favour of applicant ; Costs reserved |
| Main Category | Dispute |
| Cases Cited | Auckland Regional Council v Sanson [1999] 2 ERNZ 597;McCain Foods (NZ) Ltd v Service & Food Workers Union Inc [2004] 2 ERNZ 252 |
| Number of Pages | 25 |
| PDF File Link: | wa 39_08.pdf [pdf 99 KB] |