An Employment Court judge has ruled that pay negotiations between the Ministry of Justice and the Public Service Association (PSA) are not over and should resume.Negotiations for collective agreements covering 1700 Ministry of Justice staff in began in Ma
An Employment Court judge has ruled that pay negotiations between the Ministry of Justice and the Public Service Association (PSA) are not over and should resume.
Negotiations for collective agreements covering 1700 Ministry of Justice staff in began in May.
However, talks broke down in December, with the ministry announcing the negotiations were over, with no settlement reached.
PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff said the ruling made it clear the ministry had to sit down and negotiate a fair pay settlement.
"We've been trying to get the ministry to bargain a settlement since this pay dispute began.
"It's disappointing we've had to go to court to get that message through to the Ministry of Justice."
Ministry union staff members have been taking industrial action since October, causing disruption to court hearings around the country.
"Justice workers have been forced to take industrial action because the ministry has refused to negotiate a resolution of long standing pay problems," Mr Wagstaff said.
Ministry of Justice District Courts general manager Tony Fisher said it had made two pay increase offers to the PSA.
"The economic reality is the ministry cannot agree to a settlement at any cost," Mr Fisher said.
"In general courts have continued to operate as normal over the period of industrial action although on occasions the PSA industrial action has temporarily impacted on our services. We apologise to court users for any disruptions."
