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Wednesday 15 February 2023
Beach volleyballers served up perfect conditions
Brad Fuller makes the most of the soft sand as he makes a diving save in the premier men’s final. Photo: Evan Barnes/Shuttersport. See page 28.
Union hoists battle flag in fight for workers TRACY NEAL
Open Justice Reporter
One of the unions representing Nelmac workers has made what it calls a last-ditch effort to get management to listen to its grievances which it says has caused serious injustice to its members however, Nelmac blames the union for the breakdown. The Reunited Employees Associ-
ation (REA) has made a plea to the Employment Court to help address what it describes as injustices served on its members by the leadership of environmental management services company Nelmac. “This is our last port of redress,” said the union’s assistant secretary Kathleen Drummond in her opening statement in the Employment court on Monday.
In November 2021 the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found that the REA had breached the duty of good faith in its post-facilitation conduct toward Nelmac, some of whose employees are members of the REA, while others belong to a different union. The REA has been seeking parity with wage rates and allowances in the collective agreement Nel-
mac has with another union, the Amalgamated Workers Union NZ. The contentious issue remained problematic, the ERA said in 2021, when it also fixed the terms of the collective agreement between Nelmac and the REA. The lawyer acting for Nelmac, Nick Mason, told Open Justice it was the first time in legal history a union has been found in breach
of good faith bargaining. The REA has now appealed the authority’s decision of November 2021 to the Employment Court, which began hearing arguments in Nelson on Monday. Nelmac is a Nelson-based, council-controlled trading organisation that provides environmental management
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