Tiwai Point workers owed back-pay

Workers at the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Southland are owed millions of dollars of back-pay for annual leave they were entitled to, but never received, the Employment Relations Authority has ruled.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union members at the Bluff plant took a case to the ERA over the smelter owner New Zealand Aluminium Smelters' interpretation of lieu days for employees working 12-hour shifts.

The union argued that since workers moved from eight-hour to 12-hour shifts about 20 years ago, their lieu day entitlements had been incorrectly calculated.

The company continued to provide those working 12-hour shifts with an additional eight hours' paid leave for each public holiday, when it should have been providing them with 12 hours, the union said.

The ERA ruled the workers were legally entitled to 12 hours' leave in lieu of working a public holiday under their employment agreements.

New Zealand Aluminium Smelters acting general manager Stewart Hamilton told the Southland Times the company has the right to appeal and it is considering the decision and its implications.

He said that if the decision is accepted, it could cost the company about $7 million, imposing an additional burden at a time when it was already losing money.

The future of the smelter has been uncertain in recent months, with Pacific Aluminium, a subsidiary of multinational mining giant Rio Tinto, wanting cheaper electricity than Meridian Energy is prepared to offer.

The two parties entered negotiations to try and reach a deal.

The smelter is losing money because the international aluminium price has fallen and the value of the New Zealand dollar has risen.

The smelter employs about 750 people and supports an estimated 3000 additional jobs in Southland.