Fleur Fitzsimons: PSA National Secretary says ACC breached employee contracts

The public service union says ACC has breached employee contracts with its working-from-home rule change.

The PSA's taking the agency to the Employment Relations Authority. 

It says ACC gave the union only one hour's notice when it told staff four weeks ago they would have to come into work three days a week - up from two. 

PSA National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons told Andrew Dickens that ACC promoted jobs with three working-from-home days.

She says workers who got the roles now feel deceived. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the PSA is taking the ACC to the EERA,
that's the Employment Relations Authority. They claim they've been blindsided
over new work from home rules ACC Todd staff. They
now need to be in the office three days a week,
that's up from two. And the union's here is they
got less than one hour's notice of the change. So
PSA National Secretary Flirfit Simons is joining me. Now, come

(00:22):
on in to your flir.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good morning, Andrew.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
What's the case you're taking.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Really, what we're asking the Employments Authority to do is
to suspend the new role and instead engage in some
proper consultation with ACC staff with an open mind, because
many people have planned their whole lives around their current
working from home arrangements. And we've got a provision in
the employment agreement that says they meant to talk to
us before they make changes, just not announce them to staff.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Why should they get these rights because a lot of people,
and I'm seeing this happening already on our text, a
lot of people would say that working three days in
an office is not a hard ask.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, actually, what many people at ACC did is they
we saw the jobs that they've currently got advertised, and
when they were advertised, they said three days working from home.
So people applied for these jobs changed roles and now
they feel really deceived and consider it sort of false advertising.
But actually, when you can work from home, and when

(01:18):
it can work for you and your employer, it can
be a very good thing. It can improve productivity, it
can mean better concentration, and we know that it does
improve staff morale as well.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
But shouldn't the employer get the right to choose the
best way to improve productivity? And if they believe it's
from working in the office three days a week, that's
the way, why shouldn't they have that right.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, the reality is they agreed a provision in the
contract with us which says that they will consult with
staff on proposed policy changes, and then they recruited all
these workers on the basis that they could work from
home like that. So they're feeling really cheated and misled.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
So, if you got together and you had a bit
of a negotiation and they gave you more notice than
one hour, thing was I was a bit rough. But
if you got together had a bit of a chat
about it, is three days a week really such a
hard ask?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well, there's two elements really. The first one is they
do need to talk to us. We will listen and
we expect them to listen to staff. Then there's another element,
which is that staff do have this agreed commitment that's
been made to them. Now, employers in New Zealand can't
simply change contractual commitments. They need to agree them with
the worker. So there's sort of two elements to it really,

(02:32):
and we're asking the Employment Relations Authority to tal ACC
that they need to listen. It's pretty unfortunate it's come
to that we shouldn't need to tell an employer through
legal action that they need to listen to their staff
before they make it a decision.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
But there we are, all right, Flair, I thank you
so much for your time this Monday morning. Flir fitz
Simons as the PSA National Secretary. For more from earlier
edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news talks there'd
be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on
iHeartRadio