New Zealand Court of Appeal confirms protection of agency workers' rights

IUF New Zealand affiliate E tū has welcomed the NZ Court of Appeal's rejection of an application by LSG Skychefs to appeal a lower Court decision which asserted that hundreds of agency workers working in the company's airline catering operation were in fact employees of the company.

Last year the Employment Court ruled that agency workers who were members of the union were entitled to the employment conditions set out in the collective bargaining agreement negotiated between E tū and LSG Skychefs

The company is now required to pay agency workers their proper entitlements.

E tū Assistant National Secretary John Ryall commented:

"Labour hire (agency) is being regularly used by many New Zealand companies to move the risk of employment on to a group of very vulnerable workers. It is time that the companies using labour hire in this way changed their business model. Our union will be knocking on the door of other companies who were also exploiting the mostly migrant labour hire workforce."