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The Supreme Court has given Affco New Zealand leave to appeal a ruling that it unlawfully locked out meat workers during collective bargaining.
In October 2016, the Court of Appeal turned down the meat company’s application to overturn an Employment Court ruling, saying it was “obvious that Affco’s objective was to undermine or compromise the parallel process of negotiating a collective agreement which was underway with the union” in what amounted to an unlawful lockout.
However, earlier this month the Supreme Court ruled that Affco could appeal on the question of whether the appeal court was correct in finding a breach of the Employment Relations Act (ERA) had occurred when the company required seasonal workers to enter into new individual employment agreements before commencing work for the 2015-2016 season.
This court case is the latest in a series of legal clashes between Affco and the Meatworkers Union.
Affco was the first meat company – under the Government’s new employment law – to apply for an end to bargaining. These amendments to the ERA allows firms to opt out of multi-employer agreements and removes the duty under good faith bargaining for both sides to reach an agreement.
Originally the case covered workers at Affco’s Rangiuru, Imlay and Manawatu plants, but the company has accepted that any finding will cover all eight of its North Island plants.
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