The Owl has been digging into the Maritime Union’s affairs and it looks like they may well be in the same spot of bother that the Meatworkers Union is.
More importantly it may mean that Local 13 of the Maritime Union is an illegal union. They are collecting fees and only passing through capitation fees to the Maritime Union. Local 13 is not registered as a union and nor has it presented any accounts as required by law. My understanding is existing contracts and agreements are in the name of Local 13 and not in the name of the Maritime Union.
In my opinion Ports of Auckland should seek an immediate judgement from the courts on the validity of Local 13 continuing to negotiate and represent members at the Port.
The Owl’s findings are below:
MUNZ versus NZ Meat Workers Union
The Registrar Office has put the hard word on the NZ Meat Workers Union to file consolidated accounts and according to press releases this could add up to millions.
The issue lies around a word called “capitation” which means that all branches pay HQ a capitation fee of a set amount for the number of members each branch has.
I took the time to review other unions that have branches as well and the Maritime Union has the same set up.
2011 Accounts
Affiliation Fees $338,058.00
Registered Members according to Department of Labour Returns 2,580
Therefore average Capitation Fee $131.00
Annual Union Fees per member? At Local 13 the union fees depend on hours worked and are worked out at 1.5% of wages. That works out at between $10-$35 per week.
The majority of the Affiliation Fees comes from a branch called Seafarers $153,927.00
Owls Observation
The Owl has always said he doesn’t care what businesses spend their money on or what their business model is. What I do care about is process.
It looks like MUNZ has the same issue as the NZ Meat Workers Union and I wonder if the Registrar is taking the same hard line.
(Note: All information is available in the public domain and the Owl always apologises if incorrect.)
