Hundreds take up lawyer’s offer
Back pay claims for donning and doffing at meat processing plants
It takes about 15 minutes to put on hairnets, overalls, gumboots and now hundreds of former meatworkers nationwide are accepting the help of an Invercargill lawyer to get paid for that time.
Already the Alliance Group has factored in $19.9 million for back pay claims that are being negotiated by the union for its current employees, and while it’s one of the few companies to make details of its payments public, most workers are owed at least $3000 to $4000.
While the union is negotiating on behalf of current employees, Invercargill employment lawyer Mary-Jane Thomas is hoping to lodge collective claims to cover former workers at plants nationwide.
‘‘If you’re only owed $3000 to $4000 you can’t make a case on your own. It costs too much. But it’s hard on the company as well,’’ Thomas said.
She was already helping a ‘‘significant number’’ of former workers claim their donning and doffing back pay but numbers jumped after the firm posted an advert offering its services on Facebook. ‘‘It worked its way right up the country, really,’’ she said.
Thomas and her team will centralise and streamline the claims. One claimant, for example, had worked across five different meat processing groups during a sixyear period.
The Employment Court ruled in 2018 that the time employees spent putting on and removing specialised clothing and equipment at the beginning and end of each shift, and at rest and meal breaks, was considered work and food processing companies had been ordered to pay workers for this time.
Meat processing plants will have to pay out at least 15 minutes’ wages for every shift a worker worked, for the past six years. Thomas said the statute of limitations meant workers could only receive back pay going back six years and pay outs varied depending on the length of time a worker had been at a plant. Thomas had already worked with multiple Southland-based groups, including Alliance Group, Blue Sky Pastures, and Silver Fern Farms. She was inspired to take up the donning and doffing issue because she had been working in employment law for freezing workers all her life, she said.
The Meat Workers Union and the Alliance Group are expected to reach their donning and doffing agreement in the coming weeks after 18 months of negotiations.
Alliance general manager for people and safety Chris Selbie said the company was working to resolve employee claims over historic partial non-compliance.
‘‘Given the size of our workforce, the complicated nature of employee entitlements and the disruption caused by Covid-19, it has taken some time to finalise the proposal,’’ he said. ‘‘The union is in the process of ratifying the agreements with their members through a series of meetings at plants across the country.’’