Source: Tertiary Education Union
Today the Tertiary Education Union | Te Hautū Kahurangi has filed with the Employment Relations Authority for facilitation over the failure of the polytech employers to engage in bargaining in good faith.
TEU says that so far the employer parties have not engaged with or provided responses to claims endorsed by members. Instead they have kept a narrow focus on obtaining new separate agreements for over 2,500 members across 11 polytech employers.
Louise Simpson, polytech bargaining team member says that this is not good enough.
“Our TEU bargaining team prepared and came to the table feeling positive and ready to put our claims forward. So it’s been disappointing and frustrating to then get stuck in a discussion around single collective agreements. We’ve been ready to hear our employers claims for months, but we have been stymied by their failure to move forward in bargaining.”
National Presidents Māori and Te Tiriti, Garrick Cooper and Ti Lamusse say that the bargaining team just wants to get on with negotiations.
“Our hopes with filing for facilitation is that we can make some progress. The team come to the table ready to talk constructively about the terms and conditions that will benefit TEU members and we all want the employers to do the same thing. We remain ready to bargain in good faith.”