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Saturday, December 01, 2007

Ruling favours Spotless

I was going to blog this the other day, but cannot find any link. Another related article appeared in Scoop.

Seems the hoo-haa the unions caused back in July over the union-led requirement for a national collective was all bluster to screw more dollars out of the taxpayer.

This article was buried in the Manawatu Standard on Thur Nov 29th page 3. Reprinted in full.
There is no obligation under the Employment Relations Act that requires a multi-employer collective agreement between hospital workers and district health boards, the Employment Court has ruled. About 800 Spotless Services orderlies, cooks and cleaners were locked out of 12 hospitals for nine days until the Employment Court ruled the lockouts were illegal.

At the time of the strike, the union screamed bully boy tactics, as is the norm for their ilk, the Spotless having locked them out for health and safety reasons. The union said they were on strike because the employers refused to sign up to a national collective.

“It is a very sensible and pragmatic decision for industrial relations and employment law. It confirms an important principle, which is what the SFWU was trying to deny – that SFWU members were on strike,” said David Geor, Managing Director, Spotless.

Spotless has been vindicated in full, multi-employer collectives are not warranted and are only a union tool to cower employers into submission. The unions will not receive the $600-800K they were demanding for lost wages over the strike period.

Excellent result.

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