Aged-care round up.

Presbyterian Support Central is not the only aged-care provider heading to mediation with NZNO and the Service and Food Workers' Union (SFWU) (see story p30). The country's largest aged-care residential provider, Oceania, is also going into mediation, scheduled for October 14.

Industrial adviser Rob Haultain said a number of issues had arisen requiring mediation, since the ratification of a collective agreement covering 63 Oceania sites throughout the country in June this year. These included passing on district health board funding increases to workers; a failure to consult over restructuring and sale of facilities; lack of consultation over fingerprint scanning technology; and problems around leave entitlements flowing from the amalgamation of ElderCare and QualCare to form Oceania.

Bargaining fee ballot underway

A bargaining fee ballot of all workers employed at British United Provident Association (BUPA) facilities, formerly Guardian Health Care, was scheduled for this month. All BUPA employees are being asked to vote on whether nonmembers should pay a fee to get the benefits of the collective agreement negotiated by the two unions. The bargaining fee ballot has to be conducted before the settlement offer can be ratified.

A team of NZNO and SFWU members, with Haultain and SFWU advocate Alistair Duncan, has negotiated a settlement. "We negotiated a settlement covering approximately 1000 members in 47 facilities in just two days. We could achieve that because the decision makers, chief executive Dwayne Crombie and general manager Grainne Moss, were BUPA's negotiators," Haultain said.

While not wanting to reveal details of the settlement ahead of the bargaining fee ballot results, Haultain said it was a very good document which created a very sound platform for the unions' ongoing relationship with BUPA. The settlement offered the biggest pay increase to the lowest paid workers, Haultain said.

A novel clause is a guarantee of employment for BUPA workers over the next 12 months. Other improvements include extra sick leave and one week's pay for redundancy.

Ratification meetings for the BUPA deal were scheduled for late this month.

Bargaining is underway at Radius and Metlife care facilities around the country, with both NZNO and SFWU involved.