An industrial dispute between New Zealand meat processor Affco and its unionised workforce has been settled, according to reports.
The Meat Workers’ Union and Affco reached an agreement on a new collective contract in the early hours of this morning (22 May) following a 12-week dispute involving strikes and lockouts, local reports have said.
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Affco workers are set to receive a pay increase of 4.3% as part of the deal and are expected to return to work “soon”, with ratification meetings to be completed by next Monday, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Around 900 workers have been locked out of Affco’s eight North Island plants since negotiations for a collective agreement collapsed at the end of February.
The parties were set to meet today in the Employment Court where the union wanted to continue challenging the legality of the near three-month lockout of workers.
However, an agreement has now been reached that will “protects wages, employment security and means workers will continue to have their terms and conditions negotiated by the union”, the NZ Herald noted.
Affco, a subsidiary of privately-held New Zealand food major Tally’s Group, provides chilled and frozen beef, lamb, mutton, goat, and pork cuts to retailers and supermarkets primarily in New Zealand.
