Taking IBM to Employment Court
We’ve written previously about IBM redundancies and how they completely ignored what should be done in NZ.
‘cos it’s just business.
And also about how they refused to attend mediation
Since they’re a really big company and they were just doing business.
After a lot of dragging of feet on IBM’s part, and refusal to acknowledge anything was up
It’s all just business don’t I know?
We’re off to the Mediation (finally) this week.
You see, the ERA (Employment relations Authority) has the power to force parties to attend mediation. While this can’t of course ensure that a mutually satisfactory agreement is reached, it’s the first step in formal court proceedings. If we can’t agree on anything, then it’s off to court we go and everything suddenly becomes a matter of public record.
My job can sometimes be a little strange. Investigating what has happened to the IT systems of a company, spending weeks justifying why we need to invest some small amount of money on something to stop some people doing something we don’t want them too. [sorry for the very non-specifics, just best I don't use an example]
Until you find the right person in the organisation, whose job it is is to keep the Minister/General Manager/CEO ‘s name off the front page of the DomPost for anything other than good reasons.
This is often the acid test. Will what I’m doing keep the organisation off the radar of a bored journalist with nothing other than sifting through boxes of credit card receipts to occupy their time? [although I applaud the UK & NZ newspapers that have kept at this particular story, irrespective of debates about the journalists motivations. They are holding our elected representatives to account when those representatives seemed to feel they were beyond account. And after all, it's just business for the newspapers.]
And so with IBM, the mediation isn’t about right or wrong, it’s an acid test.
We have a strong case. Plus a very good lawyer, who spends a lot of time arguing for the Employer’s side so he knows what it’ll look like from the other end.
It’s the first major step in holding IBM to account for how it’s messed about with people’s lives.
Apparently dealing with the occasional employment relations matter is just a cost of doing business for IBM NZ.
As a current customer, a former employee, an existing shareholder – I personally believe there is a better way of doing business. I’m a bit funny like that sometimes.
[Added by Avalon: The budgeting has come in handy - we have managed OK this far on our savings. But although Hubby has plenty of work, there are long delays in getting paid for it, on top of having expenses in setting up a new consulting business. This is not an easy process to go through, and i personally have nothing but contempt for IBM in refusing twice to go to mediation, costing us lawyers fees and making the stress a whole lot worse. They are acting like bullies - which is par for the course in the NZ / Aus company. They have tried to force us to back down, and we have refused to be bullied. I hope one day theres a new management in New Zealand who actually run the company properly, not based on their silly personal insecurities over staff who get paid more than them.
If we settle on Wednesday, it is unlikely that we will be able to tell you how much for im afraid, but we should be able to tell you whether we settled or will be going to court. Court will cost us a fair bit of money, and theres no guarantee we would win, even with a strong case. But we will do that if IBM continue ride roughshod over us and the law. There have been a few recent cases in the papers with similar issues to Hubby's that won, so we have case law behind us.]
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4 Comments on Taking IBM to Employment Court
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Fran on
Mon, 21st Jun 2010 7:39 pm
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Avalon on
Mon, 21st Jun 2010 9:16 pm
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Sophie on
Mon, 21st Jun 2010 10:30 pm
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Lea on
Tue, 22nd Jun 2010 10:39 am
Will be thinking of you and hoping all goes well. Fingers etc crossed.
Frandy
Cheers Hun. We could well do without this to be honest. After all the stress of the past few years its the last thing we needed. but we just cant let them get away with it.
Good luck to you both, I hope it goes well!!
I have never had time for IBM. Worked for a big company with IBM doing all their IT stuff and they even had staff based there attending meetings and then of course the CIO came from IBM. I don’t like their attitude and the way they work at all!
Good luck!
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