Discussions On Customs Collective Contract

JULY 4 2002
Discussions Continue On Customs Collective Contract

The New Zealand Customs Service has been notified that members of the Customs Officers Association intend to hold a three hour stopwork meeting on July 17.

About half of Customs 837 staff are COA members.

The Customs Service has been negotiating a new collective contract with three unions, the COA (419 members) the PSA (235 members) and NUPE (47 members).

Discussions are continuing with the unions.

Work is still underway on assessing the implications of the notified action on operations at Auckland International Airport and other sites.

The New Zealand Customs Service proposal offers a new collective contract to staff that proposes a new remuneration system, some changes to the allowances currently payable and a more flexible system of working hours for staff in areas which operate 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Over 75 per cent of staff would receive an increase of at least four per cent in their base salary as a result of moving to the new system. For example, under the proposal Primary Processing Officers would get an increase of more than 30 percent to an hourly rate of $16.63.

Customs Human Resources Manager Julie McDougall says the Service has guaranteed that staff affected by changes to hours of work and allowances will not be disadvantaged.

Julie McDougall says Customs remains committed to reaching a settlement in what is a very complex workplace environment.

She says Customs is continuing to meet with the unions and will be discussing issues with them directly, rather than through the media.

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