Hon Brooke van Velden
Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety

Changes to collective bargaining will help rebalance the rights and consequences of industrial action, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says.

A bill to allow for pay deductions in response to partial strikes will be introduced today.

“Partial strikes are industrial actions that normally involve turning up to work but refusing to partake in key parts of the job. Often, it is the public who lose out or are caught in the middle when these partial strikes occur.

“Intentionally causing disruption to customers or to the employer’s output is not only currently a permitted collective bargaining tactic, but employers’ options to respond are limited.

Currently if an employee is engaged in a partial strike, their employer cannot deduct their pay unless they suspend the employee or issue a lockout notice.

“To provide a more effective and efficient bargaining environment, the coalition Government is reinstating provisions into the Employment Relations Act to allow for pay deductions in response to partial strikes,” Ms van Velden says.

“The previous government took this option away in 2018. Since then, we have seen patients face delays to receiving medical scans and treatment due to increased waiting lists, kids missing out on education and parents missing out on work, and train passengers left waiting at platforms.

Examples of recent partial strike action include:

• In August 2024, hospital-based MRI and nuclear medicine technologists undertook partial strike action, including limits on the numbers of scans completed each day. This resulted in a reduction of around 50 percent of scans, delays in early cancer treatment, increases in waiting lists, increased outsourcing costs and required additional front-line staff to cover the striking workers’ radiology work (noting some of the action undertaken included refusing to work overtime, which would not be covered by the proposed partial strike provisions).
• In 2023, teachers undertook strike action. The partial strike action included refusing to teach certain year groups on particular days which disrupted student learning and impacted the ability of some parents to work (where students were rostered home).
• Since mid-September 2024, New Zealand Defence Force Public Service Association union members have been ‘working-to-rule’, and from November, they have been taking coordinated breaks and stopped working at heights or off-site. In response, the Minister of Defence has authorised uniformed personnel to cover civilian work in some selected areas.
• In September 2024, train operators in Wellington began work-to-rule industrial action including refusing shift changes, leading to disruption for travellers.

“While I recognise the entitlement of employees to strike in support of their collective bargaining claims, the disruption to public and customer services that has resulted from partial strikes should not continue without consequence,” says Ms van Velden.

“Restoring employers’ ability to make pay deductions for partial strikes could help incentivise both parties to return to the bargaining table and reach agreement sooner, while also minimising community impacts.

“A large proportion of public sector collective agreements are expiring in the first half of next year. Introducing a bill this side of Christmas will set the stage for this Government continuing to deliver better public services in 2025.”

Note:

• The proposed partial strike changes mean employers can either:
  • reduce an employee’s pay by a proportionate amount, calculated in accordance with a specified method that is based on identifying the work that the employee will not be performing due to the strike, or
  • deduct 10 percent of their wages.
• Employers will have to provide written notification to employees that they will be reducing their pay before the deduction is made (the amount of deduction is not required in the notice).
• If the union disagrees with the employer’s calculation, the union must advise the employer that they disagree as soon as practicable after receiving the employer’s information on how they calculated the specified pay deduction. The union can apply to the Employment Relations Authority, who can determine whether the employer has calculated the correct deduction.

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