Meatworks guilty of breaching act

South Pacific Meats has been ordered to pay a $30,000 fine for blocking union representatives from its Awarua plant.

A hearing was held in Invercargill in October, and a decision released yesterday.

Employment Relations Authority member Helen Doyle found the company, owned by Talley’sAffco, guilty of 10 breaches of the Employment Relations Act 2000 relating to blocking the New Zealand Meatworkers Union from the plant.

In a report into her findings, Ms Doyle said she would impose both the fine and a compliance order on South Pacific Meats, as she was not persuaded there were reasonable grounds behind the company’s refusal to allow union access on-site.

‘‘I have formed a view that South Pacific acted deliberately to deny or restrict access to the union knowing it was not reasonable to do so and at times simply giving no reason as to why access could not take place . . . the breaches in this case were serious and ongoing,’’ the report said.

The fine would be paid

to the union, the report said.

Last night New Zealand Meatworkers Union Otago-southland president Daryl Carran said the authority’s findings were a win for employees at South Pacific Meats.

This was the third successful case against the company he had been involved in, he said.

In November, the authority ordered South Pacific Meats to pay $31,000 in damages to a halal slaughterman, Sahizad Mohammed, after it breached his workplace agreement by failing to keep a job offer open for five days and failing to appoint him to his seniority.

A ruling released last week also found in favour of the union, and ordered the company to pay more than $20,000 and reinstate former employee Melissa Mackie after she was not rehired.

‘‘I’d hope the employer took the message out of three successful cases that the union has run, and that they start looking beyond the woods and see the forest, and think of their workers that they’re employing,’’ Mr Carran said.

South Pacific Meats plant manager Kevin Hamilton last night refused to comment on the authority’s ruling.