New Zealand Control Towers Not “Out To Lunch”

An amendment to New Zealand’s Employment Relations Act had meant that control towers staffed by a sole charge air traffic controller could be closed for two periods of about 40 minutes each day. The issue became news when Air New Zealand said that the Airline Pilots Association had been insisting controllers take their breaks at scheduled times, rather than working flexibly as they have in the past. Control towers at Rotorua, Gisborne, Napier, Invercargill and possibly Blenheim airports would have been affected if the union had stuck to its insistence of a strict compliance with the legislation.

Air New Zealand publicly announced that the closure of the towers concerned for scheduled meal-breaks would have necessitated the cancellation of twenty-five regional flights each week, and that jobs would have been at risk at two of its regional airlines, Air Nelson and Eagle Air. According to an airline spokesman, Bruce Parton, the cancellation would have taken 2,500 seats out of the company’s regional capacity and cost it millions in revenue.

Prime Minister John Key said the government would legislate if the union and the Airways Corporation could not resolve the issue using common sense, but an agreement subsequently reached with the union means the towers will not have to close.

On the eve of the April 1 imposition of the rules, negotiators worked overtime to come up with schedules that complied with the law but kept the towers open and, as a result, there were no disruptions. Both sides in the dispute report that they approached Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson weeks ago asking for an exemption from the rule, but were declined. Ms Wilkinson responded that the government felt the legislation already had sufficent flexibility, and that as minister, she was unable to get involved in individual employment disputes.