New lawyers for Wellington City Council in living wage court challenge

Tuesday, 1 March 2016

Wellington City Council chief executive Kevin Lavery advised councillors there had been a delay in Living Wage litigation with the Chamber of Commerce because council had changed its legal support team.

Wellington City Council is swapping law firms for a court battle over its living wage policy, after its usual lawyers warned it may be acting illegally.

Emails from council chief executive Kevin Lavery to councillors showed that its legal team for a judicial review was switching from DLA Piper to Simpson Grierson

The council, which has been paying its own staff a living wage since 2013, voted in October to require its security services contractors do the same.

This was despite a report from Lavery saying DLA Piper had given legal advice that doing so could breach the the Local Government Act, which prohibits councils from paying more than necessary for services without any corresponding benefit.

* Wellington City Council pays more staff a living wage, costing ratepayers $1.7m

* New Zealand living wage rate of $19.80 to kick in July 1**

The vote resulted in Wellington Chamber of Commerce warning it would seek a judicial review of the council's living wage policy.

This week Lavery issued an update to councillors on the living wage decision for the security contract and the potential legal challenge on the decision.

In an email, he advised there had been a delay in litigation because council had changed its legal support team and wanted the new team to sign off information to the chamber.

There has been a lot of work in the background, which included the transition, instructing and handover of the case.

Processing of the official information request by the chamber and the appointment of Queen's Counsel Paul Radich, to work with Simpson Grierson, had also taken time.

In the interim, council had made progress and finalised a new security contract, which started on Tuesday.

The decision on the implementation of the living wage contract was on hold until legal clarity was established, Lavery told councillors.

Wellington Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Milford said it was undertaking the proceedings because it believed the decision was not prudent use of ratepayer resources, 47 per cent of which was contributed by Wellington businesses.

'The chamber is still in discussions with council on this issue'.

Wellington Deputy Mayor Justin Lester said on Monday council agreed it was best to get independent advice on the statement of claim.

The new legal team were best placed to represent council's interest, he said.

Councillor Paul Eagle said it looked as if a fresh set of eyes was a better way to progress.

However, he believed it was a 'delay tactic' by Lavery.

'The chamber have had time to act …it appears [council] chief executive is part of the process to delay it.'

Lavery did not return a call for comment, but issued a statement saying that with the threat of legal proceedings from the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, following council's 2015 decision to apply the Living Wage, he decided to appoint Simpson Grierson 'to bring a fresh perspective to this issue'.

'This is normal practice and is no reflection of my confidence in the quality of work of DLA Piper.

The living wage is the hourly rate which advocates say a worker needs to participate as an active citizen in the community.

The 2016 New Zealand Living Wage rate was set on Monday at $19.80 an hour and will come into effect on July 1.

The council's interpretation is $18.55 per hour.

Bumping up the wages of all security guards, noise control officers and cash collection staff was estimated to cost the council an extra $1.7 million on top of the price of the seven-year contract.

,- Comments on this story are now closed.