Having a work pattern of contract staff doing line maintenance on aircraft in conjunction with employees saved Air Nelson from allegations of strike-breaking when the contract staff carried on while employees were on strike.
The Employment Relations Act 2000 stops employers using strike-breakers to fill in when staff are on strike or locked out. Use of strike-breakers was at issue when Air Nelson line maintenance staff were on strike in June 2007.
Line maintenance work involves servicing aircraft between flights and carrying out minor repairs. Air Nelson primarily used its own staff for the job, but employed contract staff for about two per cent of the workload. They carried on working during the strike.
The legal debate was whether contract staff doing the actual work of striking employees were strike-breakers, or whether contract staff who habitually did the work were not strike-breakers despite increasing the volume of work they did.
The Supreme Court ruled that continued use of contract employees who habitually did line maintenance work was not in breach of the Act.
Air Nelson v. NZ Amalgamated Engineering – Supreme Court (17.05.10)
05.10.003