PSA says disability provider refusing to accept recommendation to settle pay dispute

RNZ News

a day ago

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RNZ
The country's largest kaupapa Māori community disability provider Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau Trust is refusing to accept an Employment Relations Authority (ERA) facilitator's recommendation to settle a collective agreement, the Public Service Association (PSA) says .
Te Roopu Taurima operates residential whare in Northland, Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury, and a residential mental health whare in Whangārei.
PSA national secretary Kerry Davies said the union and Te Roopu Taurima spent 11 days in bargaining.
Unable to reach a settlement, the PSA then applied for facilitation, which Te Roopu Taurima opposed.
The ERA held a hearing and ordered the parties into facilitation which lasted four days.
However, the facilitator's recommendations to settle the collective agreement for certain staff members seemed to have been ignored.
"Kaitaataki and poutaataki [the leaders in disability residential homes] continue to be subject to a lockout of additional hours, despite how this can affect tangata, kaiawhina [support workers they lead] and their own whānau," Davies said.
RNZ asked Te Roopu Taurima why it had yet to agree to the ERA facilitator's recommendations, if it went into facilitation in good faith, and what its plan was now to settle the dispute.
Te Roopu Taurima declined to respond.
Davies said the lack of a settlement was unusual and baffling.
"Our members, many of whom are Māori, Pasifika, and migrant workers, have reported losses in earnings of hundreds of dollars, which as already underpaid workers, they cannot afford.
"At the same time the lockout is resulting in shortages of available staff in some whare. It's a ridiculous lose-lose situation for Te Roopu Taurima, its workers and the people they care for," Davies said.
Both parties in an ERA facilitation have a responsibility to seriously consider and accept the recommendations, except in extraordinary circumstances.
"Te Roopu Taurima and its bargaining team, who seem determined to continue a dispute without good cause, are failing the workers and the people who rely on them for support," Davies said.
ERA facilitation recommendations are not binding.
The PSA said if Te Roopu Taurima continued to ignore the recommendations then bargaining and industrial action would continue.