Kia ora koutou It’s great to see pressure continuing to build, as we push the employers and the Government to do the right thing and get your MECA settled. There is still some way to go, but progress is being made… Facilitated bargaining – an updateFirst, some good news. Last week the Employment Relations Authority accepted our joint application for facilitated bargaining. This means an Authority member has been assigned to work with us, with a view to reaching a settlement. There was a case conference on Friday morning, where we agreed to a process and timeline:
After this, the Authority member will either arrange further meetings, or deliver a written recommendation to the parties. The recommendation is not binding, but we hope it will help us reach a fair settlement. Holding your bosses to accountThanks to those of you who’ve been writing to your chief executives and to the Minister of Health. We've already seen dozens of messages - every letter helps! Keep them coming. We're continuing to push your bosses when they issue ‘thank you’ statements at JCC meetings too. I'm reminding them that deeds count and words are empty at this point. I have also suggested they ponder how ill-served they have been by the DHBs’ negotiating team, whose determination to give “no offer” responses in place of reasoned discussion have led to our current difficulties. Solidarity with your allied health colleaguesMany of you will have noted that the DHBs took the PSA to court over their proposed strike action – on the grounds that their pay equity claims should not be advanced through bargaining. Both the injunction granted by the employment court and the DHBs’ refusal to make good on acknowledged pay equity issues are extremely disappointing. The PSA had already decided to exempt Auckland from the proposed action, recognising how much strain Omicron admissions are placing on those of you working in hospitals around Tāmaki Makaurau. We know that the serious shortfalls in allied health staffing place extra pressures on services – creating even greater stress and workload demands for you and your colleagues. What happens on 31 March 2022?A collective agreement usually only remains in force for 12 months after its formal expiry date. Twelve months after expiry, employees are deemed to be employed on an individual employment agreement based on the collective agreement. That is, while your terms of employment would continue as they are, you would have an individual employment agreement that automatically incorporates the provisions of the expired MECA. However, in April 2020 by Order in Council (The Epidemic Preparedness (Employment Relations Act 2000—Collective Bargaining) Immediate Modification Order 2020) the Government suspended the so-called "12-month 'double expiry' provision". Effectively the expiry clock stopped ticking on all collective agreements and will not start ticking again until the relevant Epidemic Notice is revoked. An Epidemic Notice has been in force since 24 March 2020, being continuously renewed on a 3-monthly basis. 24 March 2020 is before our MECA expired, and we would expect the Notices will be continued for a while yet. So only once the Notice is revoked will our 12-month expiry period start. This means that the MECA remains in force and you continue to be covered by it. Of course, this doesn’t address the substantive issues we are negotiating over, and we are pressing forward to reach a settlement of the MECA soon! Compliance campaignAt the same time the industrial team is supporting various services to negotiate additional payments for the extra duties caused by the Covid surge and short-staffing. These arrangements can apply in any circumstance where there are ongoing staff vacancies and where extra duties are requested by the employer. So, this work will continue well beyond the peak of the Omicron wave. Please get in touch if you would like help with this. We are pleased to see that the Auckland metro DHBs are already implementing some minimum additional payments which will apply during the surge. This should mean a fairer and more transparent remuneration landscape across the Auckland region – something we will continue to monitor. Let us know if your service is not implementing agreed remuneration for extra duties. We will be back in touch to report on progress from facilitation later in March. Ngā mihi Sarah Dalton |