Legal wrangle won't stop meca negotiations.

A legal wrangle with recalcitrant primary health care (PHC) employers has marked the start of historic negotiations for a mega PHC multi-employer collective agreement (MEGA). When negotiations began in December, 119 PHC employers were "missing in action", ie they had not authorised a bargaining agent to represent them at the negotiations, despite their employees having voted to be part of the MECA.

NZNO's industrial services manager Gee Payne-Harker said, given the scale of the MEGA, covering nearly 3000 members and 657 employers, the fact that many employers were inexperienced in industrial relations and/or unaware of their legal requirements, and the fact that many of the employment law processes had not occurred before, some legal difficulties were expected.

"We knew those difficulties would hit when we initiated bargaining. But we are confident bargaining will continue and we are taking legal action through the Employment Relations Authority to round up the employers who are missing in action. NZNO is not going to shy away from the MEGA process because of these difficulties or the complex legalities involved."

She said there was an onus on the Government to ensure employment legislation worked as weft in the private sector as it did in the public sector. The Authority has requested statements of reply from the 119 employers who had not authorised a bargaining agent. NZNO advocate Chris Wilson said of the responses already processed, some employers had indicated they would take up the option of New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) representation and a small number had chosen to represent themselves.

If some employers do not respond to the Authority, NZNO will seek further legal remedies. "The employers must realise they are obliged to negotiate a MEGA if their employees have voted to be in a MEGA. We will take this issue through the proper channels to ensure our PHC members are treated fairly and equitably. Also, we will not tolerate any employer bullying or harrassment of members about the MEGA. These members are only asking for what their public sector colleagues already have," Payne-Harker said.

Wilson said despite the legal wrangle, there had been signifcant progress at the first two days of negotiations. Representatives of 538 of the 657 PHC employers in the MECA were at the initial negotiations. The NZMA represented around 480 employers and there were five other employer representatives present. "Our goals for those days were to table our MEGA claim, which is a draft collective agreement based on the district health board MEGA; to begin developing a bargaining process agreement (BPA) and to set a timetable for 2006. We tabled the draft collective agreement which details our claim, so the employers have a reasonable timeframe in which to consider it. We made significant progress on the BPA, although there is a ratification issue still to be resolved. And we set negotiating dates [February 23 and 24, March 7 and 8; 16 and 17 and 30 and 31], so we are pleased with progress." Wilson said everybody involved knows the process will be complex and time consuming. "This is the largest MEGA ever undertaken by a union in this country, so it's going to take time."