The Employment Court has ruled in favour of the Tertiary Education Union in legal action against Auckland University of Technology.

The Court found that AUT had failed to abide by a compliance order issued by the Employment Relations Authority.

Kaiwhakahaere | Organiser Jill Jones says “This is a significant victory for the members of our union. It sends a very clear message that there are consequences for not abiding by the terms of a collective agreement.”

She added “As has been clear from the media coverage, AUT has caused distress to its students and damage to its own reputation through the poor way it has treated staff. This was completely unnecessary, and it would not have happened if AUT had simply followed the collective agreement and listened to our members in the first place.”

The Employment Relations Authority determination had stated that AUT was obliged to identify positions that “could be determined as surplus” before applying selection criteria, and that this didn’t happen. The Authority was clear that “AUT should be asked to go back and follow the collective agreement correctly”.

TEU took the matter to the Employment Court when AUT failed to comply with the order from the Employment Relations Authority.

The Employment Court Judge said “the university has, effectively, carried on the path it set for itself in about September 2022 without modifying its behaviour to comply with (the collective agreement)”

AUT has now been fined.

The full judgement can be found here - Full judgement

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