Today the NZPFU issued four notices of 1-hour stoppages with the first to be held on Friday 4 November 2022.
The strike notices (attached) are for one-hour full stoppages of work from 11am to 12 noon on:
The NZPFU and FENZ have been in bargaining for 16 months and FENZ is yet to put up a reasonable offer for settlement.
Recently the parties have been in a mediated facilitation process with former Employment Court Judge Graeme Colgan. Last Friday Mr Colgan released a report with recommendations for the settlement of the collective agreement negotiations to the parties. That report and recommendations are embargoed until 5pm tomorrow (Friday 21 October 2022). The NZPFU will be providing members with a copy of that report at that time.
The NZPFU believes there is a solid foundation of principles in the report to reach a fair and reasonable settlement.
Despite attempts pre-the release of the report to organise a meeting to discuss the party’s respective views of the embargoed report, FENZ refused to meet with the NZPFU before 27 October 2022.
FENZ needs to front up to that meeting with a proposal for settlement that embraces the principles in the Graeme Colgan report and provides for a fair and reasonable settlement including outstanding NZPFU claims that were not addressed in the report.
As the first of today’s notified strike does not occur until after the 27th October 2022 meeting, the ball is in FENZs court to genuinely demonstrate it will value and respect the work of all of our members and the critical role they have in protecting the community.
In unity,
Wattie Watson
National Secretary
