Court staff walk out in pay row

by Sandra Conchie | 17th November 2009

Tauranga court, collections and dispute tribunal staff stepped up their pay dispute industrial action by walking off the job yesterday and staying away for the rest of the day.

Protest action started when about 25 members of the Public Service Association walked away from their work stations at 10am and set up a picket line outside the courthouse for about an hour.

Concerned lawyers scrambled to find out whether their clients' cases would proceed and after some backroom discussions most hearings did as remaining staff doubled up their duties.
 

One of the strikers said the Ministry was stubbornly sticking to the same rhetoric about why it could not pay staff more.

Suggestions that PSA members had been offered a fair pay deal were refuted.

Striking staff say they will take action in various forms  until their employer  comes to the negotiating table with an offer considered to be acceptable.

Yesterday's industrial action was the fifth  since pay talks stalled last month, but the previous strikes had been for only one or two hours.

Similar industrial action was taken by Ministry of Justice staff around the country.

"Our members will not accept being paid less than the rest of the public service for running something as essential as our justice system," PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff said.

 He said the workers were paid 6.3 per cent below the pay median for the public service, with 1200 court registry officers paid 9.25 per cent below the public service median.

Andrew Hampton, general manager of higher courts, said the Ministry remained committed to resolving industrial action in a way that was affordable and fair.

"We have made a realistic offer to increase staff pay based on performance, rather than time in the job or across the board increases not related to performance.

"The bottom line is that the ministry cannot afford the current PSA claim."

Mr Hampton said  the Ministry had made the best offer it could in the current environment, and continued to favour a pay system that "rewards performance, not time in the job".

The Ministry was working hard to minimise the disruption to court users due to the industrial action, but some impact was inevitable, he said.

Bay of Plenty PSA organiser Barry Jones, who joined  members on the picket line, said industrial action had been stepped up  because the Ministry was refusing to budge from its position.

- with additional reporting NZPA