Restrictions OK
Jurisdiction Employment Relations Authority - Auckland
Reference No AA 408/08
Hearing date 2 Oct 2008
Determination date 01 December 2008
Member M Urlich
Representation AM McInally ; D France, G Mayes
Location Auckland
Parties New Zealand Amalgamated Engineering Printing & Manufacturing Union (Inc) v SCA Hygiene Australasia Ltd
Summary DISPUTE – Parties agreed to two week annual shut down during Christmas and New Year – Dispute as to appropriate payment for public holidays over shut down – Applicant argued parties could not contract out of obligations under Holidays Act 2003 (“HA”) so public holidays falling in annual shut down must be treated same as public holidays falling at any other time – Respondent argued parties agreed to suspend usual roster arrangement, affecting calculation of payment of public holidays – Issues for determination: would the days in question otherwise be working days for employee; if so, what was the relevant daily pay for those days – First criteria to consider under s12 HA in determining what would otherwise be a working day was relevant employment agreement – Collective employment agreement (“CEA”) deemed employees during shut down to be “five days per week, eight hours per day” employees – Authority found that work pattern replaced suspended roster system – Therefore “otherwise working days” contemplated by s49 HA were any days which fell in the “five days per week” span of notional work pattern – Relevant daily pay, defined in s9 HA, related only to “the day concerned” – Day concerned was one of “five days per week, eight hours per day” days – Therefore, per CEA, relevant daily pay must be reckoned at eight hours per day – No reasonable expectation that there would be work on “the day concerned” – Evidence of work completed during annual shut down, paid at 12 hours, was worked on voluntary basis and falls outside provisions concerning annual shut down
Result Questions answered ; Costs reserved
Main Category Dispute
Statutes ERA s9;ERA s12;ERA s12(3);ERA s12(3)(a);ERA s40;ERA s49
Number of Pages 4
PDF File Link: aa 408_08.pdf [pdf 23 KB]