FENZ has started to issue new appointment letters that attempt to coerce our members to sign individual employment agreements.

The letters refer to the collective employment terms and conditions of employment on matters not covered by the letter, but the letter then erodes the protections our members have under the collective employment agreement.

Our members are advised not to sign these letters.  To do so could undermine your terms and conditions of employment, and undermine your rights.

Our members are advised that if they wish to accept the appointment they should refuse to sign the letter and instead write to the relevant manager accepting the appointment in accordance with the NZPFU collective agreement.

The coercion is the requirement to sign the letter to get the appointment – coercion is illegal!

Some of the serious issues with this letter of offer are:

• The parties to the collective agreement are the NZPFU and FENZ and our members are covered by that collective agreement.  The attached letter of offer requires the employee to accept an individual employment agreement by stating the parties are the employee and FENZ.  There is no requirement to have an individual employment agreement when covered by the collective employment agreement.  By signing this the member is accepting changes that are not consistent with the collective employment agreement.  This is an underhanded way for FENZ to change the legal status of your employment arrangements.

• The statement “to undertake any and all such work as may reasonably fall within your capability due to the circumstances of the time” is to enable the employer to have the right to move the employee and have the employee undertake any such work regardless of the job description and requirements under the CA.

• The collective agreement provides that firefighters and officers are appointed to a station.  The attempt to coerce agreement to a district is to undermine the clauses in the collective agreement that provide protections for security of place of work and conditions based on appointed station.   This clause may be intended to allow the employer to require the employee to work anywhere in NZ.

• FENZ has previously attempted to change the way in which our members are paid.  The collective agreement currently requires wages being paid on a 42-hour week basis to prevent high fluctuations due to rostering as rosters do not run consistently with pay periods.  The Union has refused to agree to changes which would result in only being paid hours worked within that pay period which would mean very low wages in weeks where fewer rostered days fall within the pay period and then much higher wages for those whose rostered days all fall within the pay period.  The remuneration clause in this letter may be an underhanded way to get members to agree to these mass fluctuations without being aware of the intentions behind the wording.

• No one should sign that they agree to policies, guidelines, rules and instructions without first being provided a copy of them otherwise you do not know what you are agreeing to.  Further, if those policies etc impact on your terms and conditions of employment, including the collective employment agreement, then there may be a requirement for FENZ to have consulted with the Union, or may even require agreement with the Union.  FENZ has not been complying with the requirements of consultation and therefore those policies may not be lawful.

• For positions of SSO and under there is no agreement for vetting.  All operational positions are vetted at the time of appointment.  We currently have a case filed in the Employment Relations Authority as FENZ did not consult until they had determined their vetting process.  Also, FENZ has previously stated that only positions of GM up would be vetted.  We have not been provided with any information on the Ministry of Justice vetting, so have not been consulted on that either.  The offer cannot be conditional on that basis.

We have been writing to DCE Janine Hearn about the creep of vetting processes without receiving any response.

We have written to her today about the attached attempt to coerce members to sign individual employment agreements.

If we do not get a satisfactory response we shall take all action available to the Union.

These are just the most recent examples of where FENZ is trying to undermine the protections and terms and conditions of your collective agreement.

This is another example of why FENZ cannot be trusted to be open, transparent or to honour your collective agreement.

In unity,
Wattie Watson
National Secretary