about the psa · the psa in local government introduction with around 6,000 members local...
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About the PSA
Information on the PSA
for members of the Southern Local Government Officers Union
November 2014
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Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2
The PSA in Local Government ................................................................................................................. 3
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 3
The relationship between central and local government ................................................................... 3
Council amalgamations ....................................................................................................................... 3
The Living Wage .................................................................................................................................. 4
Funding ............................................................................................................................................... 4
Staffing and employment relations .................................................................................................... 4
The civil rights of local government workers ...................................................................................... 4
PSA Structure .......................................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 5
Sectors ................................................................................................................................................. 5
Sector membership ............................................................................................................................. 6
Sector committees .............................................................................................................................. 6
Local government sector committee .................................................................................................. 6
Executive board .................................................................................................................................. 7
National Delegates’ Congress ............................................................................................................. 7
PSA Offices .............................................................................................................................................. 8
Access to organisers ................................................................................................................................ 9
Organising practice ............................................................................................................................. 9
How PSA organisers work with members ........................................................................................... 9
Organiser co-ordination ...................................................................................................................... 9
Local government national organising team .................................................................................... 10
Education and delegate development .............................................................................................. 10
The PSA Organising Centre ................................................................................................................... 11
Industrial relations with employers ...................................................................................................... 12
Constructive engagement ................................................................................................................. 12
Auckland Council ............................................................................................................................... 12
Transforming the Workplace ............................................................................................................ 12
Standing up for members ................................................................................................................. 12
Union fees ............................................................................................................................................. 13
Member benefits .................................................................................................................................. 14
Holiday homes .................................................................................................................................. 14
Other member benefits .................................................................................................................... 14
2
Introduction The New Zealand Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi (the PSA) is the largest
union in New Zealand with over 58,000 members. We are also the largest public sector union and
the largest union in local government with around 6,000 members in that sector. We have had a
presence in local government since the merger of the Northern and Central Local Government
Unions with the PSA in the early 1990s and it is a very important sector for us.
We are excited about the possibility that members of the Southern Local Government Officers’
Union (SLGOU) might decide to merge with us. While we are the largest union in local government
we have not been able to say that we are the national union for local government and that ability to
speak with one voice on behalf of the local government workers in New Zealand will be extremely
important in the current environment where local democracy and local government expenditure is
under threat.
With 2,000 members, Otago and Canterbury local government workers will represent a quarter of
our members in local government and will have a big say in the decisions made by our local
government sector committee, and through that to the executive board of the PSA.
This paper is designed to provide you with the information you need to know about the PSA and
how it works, and our role in local government. We hope it will answer your queries, but if you have
any further questions then do not hesitate to contact us on [email address – Matt, you will need to
set one up on the web page that comes to me]
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The PSA in Local Government
Introduction
With around 6,000 members Local government is an important part of our union and it has a
dedicated sector committee with representation on the executive board and at PSA congress.
Should the merger go ahead the PSA will have around 8,000 members, which will make us a
significant voice on behalf of local government workers. This will give us more weight as we tackle
the important issues affecting the local government sector, such as: the difficult relationship
between central and local government; council amalgamations; sources and levels of local
government funding; staffing and employment conditions; and the Living Wage.
The PSA can progress this agenda through its relationship with Ministers, officials in the Department
of Internal Affairs, and sector stakeholders such as Local Government New Zealand and the Society
of Local Government Managers.
The relationship between central and local government
In constitutional terms central and local government are both creatures of Parliament, one
accountable to the national community and the other accountable to local and/or regional
communities.
The current government has taken an interventionist approach which is aimed at reducing the role
and powers of local government. This is reflected in such initiatives as: the changes to the Local
Government Act in 2012 and 2014; the installation of commissioners in Environment Canterbury; the
over-riding of Auckland’s Unitary Plan to allow more green fields housing development; and changes
to the Resource Management Act to alter the balance of environmental considerations in RMA
decision-making.
We have approached political parties across the spectrum to get them to repeal key aspects of the
2012 amendments to the Local Government Act, develop a new framework for the central-local
government relationship and review the constitutional basis for local government. The Greens,
Labour and New Zealand First have all been receptive to these ideas.
Council amalgamations
Amendments to the Local Government Act 2012 were designed to facilitate the amalgamation of
local authorities at the expense of local democracy. This has created an environment in which a
balanced consideration of amalgamation proposals is difficult. The PSA will therefore subject any
proposal to amalgamate to serious questioning and would need to be sure that real benefits would
accrue to our members and their communities before we could support an amalgamation proposal.
All the issues will be worked through with affected members.
The PSA has already made submissions to the Local Government Commission opposing
amalgamations in Northland and Hawkes Bay, and is awaiting the report from the Commission on
those proposals and the one for Wellington.
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The Living Wage
The PSA is active in the Living Wage coalition and has been instrumental in the campaign in local
government, particularly in Wellington. While we welcome councils committing to paying the living
wage to employees (as Wellington City Council has done), it is crucial that it be extended to
contracted workers. We will continue to be active where opportunities arise at local level.
Funding
The sustainability of local government funding has become an increasingly important policy issue in
the face of rapid demographic, legislative and economic change. There is pressure on rates and the
winding back of development contributions with the passage of the 2014 amendments to the Local
Government Act. At the same time central government has been asking local government to
undertake an increasing range of responsibilities.
Local Government New Zealand is conducting a review of the future adequacy of existing funding
sources available to local government. The PSA will be submitting to this review.
Staffing and employment relations
From a workforce and employment relations perspective, local government is highly-fragmented.
Each local authority chief executive employs and sets the terms and conditions for council staff.
Occupations are common across councils, but there is little or no coordinated workforce
development and planning especially in sector-specific roles such as building inspection and
compliance. Issues such as pay equality and the persistent gender pay gap cannot be addressed in a
coordinated way.
The PSA would like to see great co-ordination on workforce development issues and greater
consistency in employment relations.
The civil rights of local government workers
Local government workers are also citizens and usually residents in the area covered by the council
they work for. They have the right of citizens to become involved in local democracy, such as making
submissions on the annual plan, provided they do not submit on an area they have responsibility for
or are working in, and they do not use information that they have gained in the course of their
employment. The PSA is working with Local Government New Zealand to develop guidelines for local
authorities on this issue.
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PSA Structure
Introduction
The PSA has democratic structures at both an enterprise1 and at a governance level. Members in
each enterprise elect delegates who manage their activities across the organisation through an
enterprise delegate committee.
Māori members also have the opportunity to elect a Māori enterprise delegate (if they want) to
represent Māori interests and sit on the enterprise delegate committee.
An annual members meeting (AMM) is held in each enterprise to consider both PSA and workplace
issues. Delegates’ elections are held as part of the annual members meeting (AMM) process.
A diagram of the PSA’s governance and representative structure is attached as schedule A.
The Rules also set out the current areas of membership coverage (rule 11 (1) (a-e) which include
“local government, including all local authorities and council controlled organisations”. An
amalgamation with SLGOU would not require a change to these areas of coverage.
Sectors
Enterprises are organised into sectors based on the way the public sector is organised:
Community Public Services sector comprising: i) non-governmental, not-for-profit, self-governing, voluntary organisations delivering a range of services in the community, including public services funded fully or partially by the state or local government; ii) private, for-profit organisations delivering community-based public services funded fully or
partially by the state or local government.
DHB sector: District Health Boards and agencies wholly-owned by the DHBs, and any public
organisation established to replace the district health boards
Local Government sector: all local authorities and CCOs
Public Service sector: all public service and non-public service departments, and offices of
parliament
State sector: crown entities; state owned enterprises; Public Finance Act 4th Schedule organisations;
and any private organisation engaging in commercial activities, including those that were previously
provided by the state.
1 ‘Enterprise’ is the term used in the PSA for an organisation where we have members, eg a local authority, a
government department, a crown research institute or a community agency.
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Sector membership
The membership density varies across enterprises and across sectors but our current membership by
sector as at October 2014 is:
Sector No. of members
Community Public Service 5270
District Health Boards 16670
Local Government 5952
Public Service 21973
State Sector 8266
The PSA also has an associate members’ category, mainly for retired members, and staff may also
opt to be members of the PSA.
Sector committees
Each sector is headed by a sector committee. The committees meet three times a year. Members
of the committee are elected by delegates and represent groupings of enterprises. Each committee
has a set of constituencies, suitable to their sector. For example, the local government, DHB and CPS
sectors are on a regional basis. The other 2 sectors group like enterprises, such as Crown research
Institutes, into constituencies.
Each sector is led by an elected committee, whose work is supported by an organiser and an
organising administrator.
Sector committee members receive all executive board papers in advance and provide input to the
board’s discussions via their convenor.
Local government sector committee
Current membership of the local government sector committee is:
Flash Sandham (Convenor), Taupo District Council
Annette Smithard (deputy convenor), Auckland Council
Sara Moylan, Greater Wellington Council
Gary Gabbitas, Far North District Council
Cris Crighton, Invercargill City Council
Richard Foster, Thames Coromandel District Council
Ian Cooper, Palmerston North City Council
Ceinwen Bannister (Women’s rep), Wanganui District Council
Lee Rauhina-August (Runanga rep), Greater Wellington Regional Council
Sophie Williams (Runanga rep), Hutt City Council
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The PSA runs a local government delegates’ national conference not less than once every 2 years.
Maori structure
In addition, Māori members are organised into Te Rūnanga o Ngā Toa Āwhina, which also has a
governing committee and has representation on each of the sector committees. The committee of
the Rūnanga has comparable status to the sector committees.
Executive board
The sector committees, and the committee of the Rūnanga, elect convenors who comprise the
executive board, which manages the affairs of the PSA. The national secretaries are members of the
executive board, as is a staff representative.
The executive board is chaired by the president, who is elected by delegates to our biennial National
Delegates Congress. Mike Tana is the current president and was re-elected unopposed at Congress
in September. The board elects a vice president and treasurer from amongst the sector and runanga
members of the board.
National Delegates’ Congress
The biennial National Delegates’ Congress is the highest policy making body in the union and sectors
are represented there according to the size of their membership. Around 120 delegates attended
Congress in 2014.
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PSA Offices
The PSA has offices at the addresses in the main centres as below:
Auckland
155 New North Road
Eden Terrace
Auckland 1021
Hamilton
31 Harwood St,
Hamilton 3204
Palmerston North
PSA House,
49 King Street,
Palmerston North 4442
Wellington
11 Aurora Terrace,
Wellington 6011
Nelson
Munro State Building
Ground Floor South
190 Bridge Street
Nelson
Christchurch
Unit F, 521 Blenheim Rd
Sockburn
Christchurch 8042
Greymouth
84 Tainui St
Greymouth
Dunedin
30 London Street
Dunedin 9054
In addition we have individual organisers working from home in Whangarei, Tauranga, Gisborne and
Hawkes Bay.
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Access to organisers
The PSA currently employs 78 organisers who are based around the country at the offices listed
above. In addition, there are 5 online organisers working from the PSA’s Organising Centre. Those
organisers are supported by the strategy and support teams that provide policy, legal,
communications and IT support, and manage the union’s finances, membership and member
benefits systems.
Organising practice
The PSA has a well-developed model of organising practice that emphasises building union
organisation in the workplace, strategic engagement with enterprises, and planning and delivering
positive membership outcomes. Effective union organisation in the workplace means that delegates
are active in providing leadership and support to their members but they are well supported by
organisers. Both members and delegates have good access by phone and e-mail and organisers visit
the enterprises they are responsible for on a regular basis.
How PSA organisers work with members
Every workplace and member we cover is allocated to a designated organiser.
Cellphones, vehicles and laptops are allocated to organisers so they can work in the workplaces
where our members are based.
Organisers are responsible for local bargaining, handling grievances, building membership and
supporting delegates, building engagement with the employer and carrying out the union’s policies.
Organiser co-ordination
Organisers are grouped into one of 9 local organiser teams based on geography. In addition
organisers are part of national organising groups depending on the sectors or enterprises they work
in.
Worksites are allocated to organisers so that the number of sectors they work across is
reduced. This is easier in the larger centres where there are greater concentrations of members. An
example is in Auckland where we have 3 organisers working exclusively in Auckland Council and its
CCOs. In Auckland we also have a full-time delegate paid by the Council to support other delegates
to build the union and its engagement with the employer.
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Local government national organising team
There is a national organising group for local government to which around 20 organisers belong. We
have 2 local government organisers who in addition to local organising have a component of their
work based on regional coordination. We have established regional delegate structures within our
local government membership. The PSA negotiates well over 50 collective agreements in local
government and has a bargaining strategy aimed at improving and standardising conditions
wherever we can. We also have a sector plan that is discussed as part of our annual members’
meetings. Local government organisers meet together nationally once a year. Regional meetings
are held 3 times a year.
Education and delegate development
The PSA has an education team that focuses on providing union education to our delegates. A series
of generic courses is run across sectors for all our members and delivered in the local regions. In
addition we run specific training that is tailored to the needs of members in a particular sector or
enterprise. For example, last year at Auckland Council we ran a 2 day workshop that was attended
by 60 delegates.
Education and development opportunities are also provided to organisers.
Leadership development for young workers and emerging leaders takes place through the PSA Youth
network, one of a number of cross-enterprise, cross-sector networks for groups of PSA members.
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The PSA Organising Centre
The PSA Organising Centre is our call centre but, as the title suggests, it is far more than a traditional
call centre. We see it as an important support for members and delegates, providing the first port of
call for member employment and union queries. It is part of our organising effort and is staffed by
five fully trained professionals who are equipped to provide advice and assistance when needed.
The organising centre deals with:
general enquiries
employment relationship problems and personal cases
information about the PSA
information about membership
clarification on members’ employment agreement
clarification of New Zealand employment law
resources e.g. posters and leaflets.
They endeavour to deal with employment relationship issues throughout the process, and have
developed great expertise in this area. However, they ensure that the relevant organiser is kept
informed and may hand cases back where they are particularly complicated or where it becomes
impractical to manage the case by phone.
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Industrial relations with employers
Constructive engagement
Our approach to relationships with our employers is consistent with our model of organising
practice. We seek to have constructive engagement with employers to enable us to work together
on matters of common interest, while ensuring that our relationship is robust enough to enable us
to manage situations where we have different interests and tensions might rise.
While we won’t back down from industrial action where required, we seek to create forums or
environments where a range of issues can be progressed in a constructive way and our members can
be heard. For example, in district health boards we have jointly established the health sector
relationship agreement with other health unions, the DHB employers and the government. The
HSRA provides a forum where we can constructively engage on a range of mainly strategic issues in
the sector, but the structure also provides for Bipartite Advisory Groups within each DHB where
issues specific to that enterprise can be discussed by the employer and the union.
Auckland Council
In local government we have entered into a comprehensive process with Auckland Council,
facilitated by the internationally recognised consultant Tom Schneider. The intention is to build
constructive union-management engagement into a whole range of strategic and operational issues.
While this engagement is at a relatively early stage, it has already led to an interest-based approach
to bargaining at the Council last year in which negotiations were completed and the collective
agreement ratified in a very short space of time, and the move to a new headquarters building is
being managed in a positive way with staff on board.
Transforming the Workplace
The main item on our strategic agenda is a programme called ‘Transforming the Workplace’, in
which we aim to ensure our members have good work and decent workplaces and that they are able
to contribute positively to the delivery of quality public services. We can best advance this agenda
where the employer is willing to engage constructively, but we intend to make progress wherever
opportunities present themselves.
Standing up for members
Notwithstanding our approach, not all employers wish to engage with us in this way. For example,
in 2009/10 we had a bitter dispute with the Ministry of Justice over renewal of the collective
agreement which led to extended industrial action. We are prepared to stand up for members in
whatever way is appropriate for the situation.
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Union fees The PSA reviews its fees every two years. The following PSA fees will be effective from 1 March
2015.
Gross annual salary Fortnightly
fee
Over $39,104 $16.70
Between $18,380 and $39,104 $8.30
Under $18,380 $4.10
The PSA fees are based on gross annual salary whereas the fees of the Southern Local Government
Officers’ Union are based on whether a member is full-time or part time. Some SLGOU members will
receive a reduction in fees while most will have to pay more. The increase with be phased in over 3
transitional steps occurring on 1 July 2015, 1 July 2016 and 1 July 2017. These adjustments will
coincide with pay increases for most local government workers in Canterbury and Otago and the
increase will be spread as evenly as possible over each of the steps.
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Member benefits
The PSA has a programme of member benefits, including our network of holiday homes. We have
recently concluded a contract with Member Advantage, an Australian union-based member benefits
programme that is extending its operations into New Zealand. The PSA is one of several large unions
joining this programme, which will give benefits to member when they visit Australia, and will use its
group purchasing power to gain new benefits in NZ. This was launched at congress in September
2014.
Holiday homes
We have 41 holiday homes in 7 locations: Whitianga, Rotorua, Raumati (north of Wellington),
Nelson, Carters Beach, Otematata and Te Anau.
Members in Otago can access another holiday home in Queenstown, owned and operated by the
Otago Public Service Welfare Society. (Other PSA members can access this holiday home in certain
circumstances.)
Prices range from $46 per unit per night for comfortable, basic accommodation to $125 for
something more luxurious.
A ballot is conducted for the popular summer school holiday period.
Other member benefits
Banking: PSA members are eligible for a special banking package with Kiwibank, which currently
includes 0.25% off Kiwibank’s advertised fixed home loan rates, 0.50% off Kiwibank’s advertised
variable home loan rate, free EFTPOS on everyday accounts and great discounts on credit cards.
Personal insurance: Vero offers a PSA Personal Insurance Plan that can include home and contents,
and car insurance.
Health & risk insurance: Crombie Lockwood offers a PSA Member Health & Risk Plan which can
cover life insurance, protection against the financial impact of illness, injury or redundancy, and
health insurance.
Car rentals: PSA members can compare instant quotes from Avis and Budget and then book the
bets deal online.
Tyres: PSA members receive an exclusive discount at all Beaurepaires stores nationwide.
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Schedule A