Business NZ promotes industrial lawlessness

"Business NZ has either been ignorant of the law for five years or is misrepresenting an Employment Court decision for election purposes," CTU president Ross Wilson said today.Business NZ has criticised an Employment Court decision which found the Christchurch City Council guilty of breaches of good faith, deliberately undermining and disrupting the bargaining process, and deliberately flouting a decision of the Employment Relations' Authority.

"This is a case where an employer who should know better has deliberately ignored the choice of its employees to bargain through their union, and has disrupted and undermined the bargaining process by insisting on bombarding them with communications." Ross Wilson said.

"The Act has been clear since 2000 and Business NZ is promoting bad faith and illegal employer behaviour by publicly criticising the Employment Court."

"As the Court emphasised in its judgment, if the employees want communications from their employer during and relating to the bargaining they can authorise it through a process agreement as occurred previously in this case."