Defence Force civilian staff take industrial action over zero wage offer

Tuesday, 17 September 2024

Unionised Defence Force civilian staff will begin industrial action on Wednesday over a zero per cent wage increase offer.

Bargaining between the Public Service Association (PSA), which represents non-uniformed defence staff, and the Defence Force has been ongoing during a time when defence is struggling to meet its budget, so is offering voluntary redundancies and cutting costs such as printing its service magazines.

While the Government has committed funding to uniformed staff wages in recent Budgets to resolve high attrition in the force, there is nothing on offer for civilian staff.

PSA national secretary Duane Leo said on Tuesday that the civilian staff had voted overwhelmingly to work to rule and refuse overtime and callouts - unless lives were in danger - from Wednesday, September 18 until October 31.

Staff who load and unload ships at Auckland’s Kauri Point armament depot would begin on October 2, as their work was considered an essential service and 14 days notice must be given. Work to rule means employees will work the minimum required by their contracts, in an effort to dampen productivity.

A defence spokesperson on Tuesday said the organisation was “bargaining in good faith” with the PSA and contingency plans would ensure routine and essential work was not affected by the action.

Leo said the zero wage increase offer from the Defence Force was “insulting” to civilian workers, leaving them “no choice but to show the depth of their feelings by taking this action”.

“They value the work of those in uniform above the thousands of civilian workers who support them day in day out so our military can do the important mahi of safeguarding our country.

'The refusal to offer any pay increase will further undermine morale, increase workloads on those remaining and prompt many others to consider leaving.“

Already, 206 of the 3294 civilian defence staff have applied to take up a voluntary redundancy offer, as defence seeks to slash $30 million in spending to close a $130m budget overspend.

Labour Party defence spokesperson Peeni Henare said he was “not surprised” about the industrial action amid cuts to the defence budget.

“We know often it’s the civilian staff that are usually the first one out of the door … They’ve been one of the more ignored groups of the NZDF personnel.”

Defence magazines go digital-only

A recent victim of the cost cutting has been the printed versions of the long-running Navy Today, Air Force News, and Army News, which from October will be produced digitally.

In the case of Air Force News, the publication has been printed since 1940, first under the title Contact.

The defence spokesperson said the cost of printing the three magazines was $304,000 a year, and postage was $180,000.