Sharechat Logo

Affco seeks leave to appeal Employment Court ruling on unlawful lockouts

Monday 14th March 2016

Text too small?

Affco New Zealand has sought leave to challenge an Employment Court ruling that the Talleys Group-controlled meat processor unlawfully locked out meat workers when collective bargaining talks were still underway.

The ruling was one in a series of legal clashes between the group and the Meatworkers Union, and while it found in favour of the union, national secretary Graham Cooke said it was a pyrrhic victory because Affco has continued to block its access to members and treat them as second-class workers.

Paul Wicks QC, for Affco, said the company sought leave to appeal on the basis that there were questions of law that flowed from the original judgement that the Court of Appeal should deal with on appeal.The central issue was whether seasonal work at meat processing plants gave rise to continuous employment or, as the company had argued, discontinuous employment, in the sense that in the off-season the workers aren't employed.

Employment Court judgements can only be appealed on questions of law. In the Court of Appeal today, Justice Rhys Harrison bewailed both the complexity of the application and the quality of the original judgment, which he said was "very long - a very, very long judgement which traverses a lot of ground." Justices Harrison, John Wild and Mark Cooper had difficulties finding the remedies and declarations in the judgement, and couldn't easily find the conclusions that led to the decision.

In the event, Justice Cooper furnished a "re-framed" set of the questions submitted by Wicks, which Justice Harrison said was an attempt to "questions of law that might be arguable".

Union lawyer Peter Cranney told the court the Employment Court judgement had analysed the relevant employment contracts in great detail and its decision had been based on "a multiplicity of reasons".

The original case covered workers at Affco’s Rangiuru, Imlay, and Manawatu plants but the company had accepted any finding would cover all eight of its North Island plants.

Affco became the first under the government’s new employment law to apply for an end to bargaining. Amendments to the Employment Relations Act, introduced in March last year, let firms opt out of multi-employer agreements and removed the duty under good faith bargaining for both sides to reach agreement.

The decision on whether to grant Affco leave to appeal was reserved.

BusinessDesk.co.nz



  General Finance Advertising    

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:
Your name:
Your email:
Not displayed to the public
Comment:
Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved.

Related News:

SML - Synlait Milk Limited - Trading Halt of Securities
AIA - Auckland Airport announces board chair changes
AIA - Auckland Airport announces board chair changes
CEN - Tauhara commissioning progress update
FPH initiates voluntary limited recall
March 28th Morning Report
KFL Celebrates 20 Years of Excellence in Investment Mgmt.
SVR - Savor FY24 Earnings Guidance & Change in Banking Partner
NZK - NZ King Salmon Investments Limited FY24 Results
March 27th Morning Report