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Skycity Auckland
Skycity Hamilton

Welcome from SEA-Unite! Congratulations on your new job at SkyCity.

 

Unite Union is a modern, 21st century organisation of workers. Our mission is to lift wages, improve conditions and win respect for workers across New Zealand. We have helped improve the rights of ALL worker through legal changes like:

  • Ending zero hour contracts

  • Ending youth rates

  • Winning a Pathways to Residency for migrant workers

 

The SkyCity Employees Association (SEA-Unite), our SkyCity branch, is the largest union at SkyCity with over 600 members.

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We have a proud history at SkyCity in negotiating improvements in wages and conditions and protecting workers when their rights are threatened.

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Among the many improvements we have negotiated are:

  • Pay rises every year that are nearly always above inflation

  • Time and a half for overtime

  • A union only payment of $125 paid each quarter until December 2023

  • Improved redundancy pay

  • Cheap meals and car parking

  • Guaranteed minimum hours for part time staff that can be improved to suit the workers needs.

 

If you have an issue at work, SEA-Unite members can get advice or legal support to uphold your rights. Where there is a dispute, or you’re in trouble with the company, the union can provide representation for meetings with management.

Where we have more members, we are able to win better employment agreements. It’s important that not only you become a member, but make sure your workmates sign up too!

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Casinos Lead Organiser

Joe Carolan

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PART-TIME AND CASUAL WORKERS

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The company often hires workers as casual or part-time workers to try people out before offering them full-time work. It is also a chance to keep people jumping for additional work that the company needs done. This is especially true when there is a lot of unemployment and its easy to replace workers who aren’t jumping high enough.

During periods of low unemployment, as has been recently, there is often so much work available that part-time or casual workers can pick and choose how many hours they want to work and which days they want to work. This sometimes makes life tougher for full-time workers who have to work the less popular shifts. But unemployment is now growing and it is possible that the coming recession will mean that the company will want to start cutting the hours being offered to part-time or casual staff. That is why the union recommends that parttime staff maximise the number of guaranteed hours they currently have (including going full-time if you want. Part-time staff are often left on the guaranteed minimum of 8 hours a week from when they started work.

In Auckland, the company is meant to offer minimum hours of various bands as follows:

Band A - 8 hours per week

Band B - 16 hours per week

Band C - 20 hours per week

Band D - 24 hours per week

Band E - 32 hours per week (or 30 hours for employees on a 10-hour roster).

If you want an improved minimum number as above or full-time work, then contact the union. If you are casual you should change your status to part-time with a guaranteed hours number that you want. If you want a change, the first step to take is to: - Write to your manager requesting a change of status - casual to part time or part time to full time. - Write to your manager to request an improved guaranteed hours number if you want to remain part-time. Copy your request to joseph@unite.org.nz

Casinos News

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Download the Latest Casinos Newsletter

Skycity Auckland

Download Collective Agreement

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FORCED HOME EARLY OR TO WORK CLOCKED OUT?

Your roster is a contract. You agree to work it and SkyCity agrees to pay for all work you do. You can agree to finish early (“early out”) if you want to but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. If you are working you should be clocked in and paid - even if it is past your rostered finish times. You are paid by the hour - not by the room, table or customer. If you, or any othe SkyCity worker, is pressured to go home ealry or continue working contact SEA-Unite immediately.

SEA-UNITE SAYS NOT ENOUGH! BARGAINING TEAM REPORT

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We need you to join together to get a better deal! Since the beginning of September, the combined SEA Unite and E tū union bargaining team have met with your employer several times. Our penal rate claim has been rejected, and the pay increase offered is 2.5% on 1 April next year and 2.5% on 1 April the year after. While there have been some positive gains, such as improving the shoe allowance and an offer to roll-in service payments to improve pay rates, the union bargaining team feels that the overall offer falls far short of being acceptable. We will be holding combined union member feedback sessions on Friday 8th November, where we will present the full company offer, encourage you to reject it, endorse a mandate to settle and to consider industrial action. Please come to one of the meetings to have your voice heard. Kia Kaha! The SEA Unite and E tū bargaining team

Skycity Hamilton

Download Collective Agreement

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FORCED HOME EARLY OR TO WORK CLOCKED OUT?

Your roster is a contract. You agree to work it and SkyCity agrees to pay for all work you do. You can agree to finish early (“early out”) if you want to but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. If you are working you should be clocked in and paid - even if it is past your rostered finish times. You are paid by the hour - not by the room, table or customer. If you, or any othe SkyCity worker, is pressured to go home ealry or continue working contact SEA-Unite immediately.

WHEN THE TRON STRUCK

DAVID GARRITY

I’d like to tell you about Skycity Hamilton’s strike actions in 2022.

  When we are bargaining, we work hard to reach the best deal we can at the time. Often this won’t require confrontation outside the negotiations but at the end of 2021 we had been three years trying to settle a contract for Hamilton!

  We decided to strike on New Years Eve from 10 pm till Midnight . The first strike in the world for 2022!

  At that stage our main strength was in Food and Beverage and for many of our members it was their first Strike Action. Joe Carolan and some more of the Auckland team and supporters came down with a bus and sound system and set up outside the main entrance. At 10 pm our team bravely walked off the job and we all partied and chanted for the next couple of hours before returning to work. We had a great time and followed this up for the next few weekends, targeting the busiest nights.

  Management and HR did some training to fill the gaps in the Bar and Bevvy areas and there was lots of frustration and concern up in the management offices over this period.

  We eventually had to go to mediation and managed to get a deal settled.

  If it comes to strike action this time around, rest assured that we’ll WHEN THE TRON STRUCK do it strategically so that no one loses too much pay.

  For strike action to work, all members need to be willing to back the action and step up. Of course, it is much more effective when we have the numbers so you should be talking to your workmates about being in the union and explain to them that if you walk off the job on a strike then they should not step up to take your place! The law protects them if they choose not to and they should not take on extra shifts or overtime to cover for strikers. Undermining a strike is not a friendly thing to do to your coworkers and they should realise that they are undermining a deal that will benefit them in the long run, as the company usually passes on the gains that the Union has won.

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