News

Telecom call centre contractor Sitel will shortly go back to mediation with the EPMU over redundancy rights for members whose redundancies were announced at the company’s Palmerston North call centre last November and after it spent weeks denying the union access to its members.

The mediation follows successful legal action to uphold the union’s right of access to its members in the call centre after the issue came to a head when Sitel and Telecom management as well as several security guards physically prevented officials from visiting the site on 20 December last year. The union wanted to talk about the announced redundancies which were to affect around 60 union members. The events of 20 December led to EPMU lead organiser Wayne Ruscoe being arrested and charged with assault.

On 25 March the Employment Relations Authority upheld the union’s right to enter the workplace and ordered Sitel to allow the union to meet its members while they were at work so the union could discuss the redundancies. The Authority also found that a trespass notice issued by Telecom against Wayne Ruscoe could not be used to prevent him from exercising the union’s access rights under the Employment Relations Act. Immediately following the decision, Wayne Ruscoe, and another of the union’s Palmerston North-based organisers, Laurel Reid, met with members on site, and have continued to see Sitel members each day.

Since the Authority’s decision, Sitel has made a modest cash offer to redundant workers and has said it is prepared to go to mediation to resolve all outstanding issues.

The union will now be taking action against the security firm, ADT Armourguard, and each of the security guards involved in the events of 20 December for beaching the Employment Relations Act.

“The right of access to members when they are in the workplace isn’t just a right for union officials, it’s a right of union members to have their union organiser visit them at work and is a fundamental part of union membership,” national secretary Andrew Little said.

“When employers not only try to prevent access themselves but then employ security guards to aggressively and violently stop union officials from getting access then everyone involved needs to be taken firmly to task.”

“The legislation says it is about addressing the inherent imbalance of power in the employment relationship, and you couldn’t have a more classic example of that than the events at Sitel on 20 December last year, and we owe it to all members to make sure this never happens again.”