Lockout: Affco loses final appeal

After a lengthy court process, the Supreme Court has ruled Affco unlawfully locked out seasonal meatworkers from its Wairoa processing works.

In June 2015, Affco told the workers it would not take them on for the new season unless they signed a new, individual agreement. During 2013 and 2014 the workers had been party to a collective agreement. They argued the individual employment agreements were substantially less favourable than those contained in the expired collective.

The Employment Court said that was an unlawful lockout and ruled that the workers and Affco had a continuous employment relationship, even through the offseason.

Affco appealed that decision to the Court of Appeal, which ruled in the workers’ favour. Again Affco appealed the decision, this time to the Supreme Court, which unanimously dismissed the appeal. ‘‘The essential question in the appeal was whether those who presented themselves for work at the beginning of the 2015-2016 season were at that time ‘employees’ for the purposes of the lockout provision. If they were, it was accepted that there was an unlawful lockout,’’ the court said.

It found that the workers had previously worked for Affco and were owed a number of continuing obligations as to rehiring, even though their employment had terminated at the end of the previous season and they were seeking to be re-engaged for the new season. The workers could thus be defined as ‘employees’.

Meatworkers Union national secretary Graham Cooke said there was now a process to go through to identify the amount the Wairoa workers were owed. They were arguing $4 million, but Affco was opposing the sum.