Hospitality NZ is concerned about some union activity, relating to the Hospitality Industry Fair Pay Agreement process and to the Commercial Cleaners Fair Pay Agreement process.
We are concerned about unions collecting personal information about workers , when that information goes beyond what we believe unions are entitled to collect under the Fair Pay Agreements Act.
We are also concerned about complaints of unions using the Fair Pay Agreement Act to hold meetings for workers, but not complying with their legal obligations to do this is a way that minimises distribution to businesses.
We are also concerned about reports of unions obtaining employee personal information under the Fair Pay Agreement Act, but then using it for wider purposes (i.e. not directly related to the Fair Pay Agreement Act). One example of this is reports of unions using employee personal information obtained under the Fair Pay Agreement Act to engage in election campaigning. Another example is a complaint of a union using employee personal information obtained under the Fair Pay Agreement Act to send a survey to employees (about their employment status, if they received an IEA prior to starting work, wage rates, health and safety, bullying etc – and Hospitality NZ has not yet formed a final view about whether this is a proper use of employee personal information obtained under the Fair Pay Agreement Act).
While there is lots of provision for penalising non-compliant employers under the Fair Pay Agreement Act, there is less for penalising non-compliant unions. Also, what happens this weekend could be relevant to how these sorts of issues play out. However, we will follow up these complaints/allegations, and form a view about whether we believe the good faith provisions of the Fair Pay Agreement Act and/or the Privacy Act have been breached; and, if so, what should be done about it.