NO POINT IN RETURNING TO FACILIATION

Yesterday the ERA contacted the NZPFU requesting our availability for facilitated bargaining on the 30^th and 31^st March 2026. There had obviously been previous communications between the ERA and FENZ (that we had not been copied into) and despite requesting that correspondence we did not receive it.

The NZPFU accepted facilitation on the basis that FENZ would provide a new offer that CE Kerry Gregory had earlier told the Union it was being worked on.

Today, Kerry Gregory wrote to the Union claiming FENZ is expecting NZPFU to table a new settlement proposal at the commencement of the facilitation.  He said that FENZ would not be tabling a new offer at the commencement of bargaining prior to the NZPFU tabling a new proposal.

This is bizarre – why seek facilitation to be revived without intending to front with an offer that FENZ said in early March it was working on.

The NZPFU last tabled a proposal on the 26th January 2026.  While we have made some progress on various matters, the big ticket items are not resolved.  The NZPFU has tried many ways of addressing those issues, but they have not been acceptable to FENZ.  FENZ has not provided an offer or proposal since 2025. 

The NZPFU has notified the Authority we will not be attending facilitated bargaining unless it is for the purposes of FENZ to table its new offer.

In unity,
Wattie Watson
National Secretary