Working Effectively Together: A Multi-union Environment

The New Zealand Customs Service Story

The Customs Service provides New Zealand with critical border security services, facilitating the movement of people, goods and craft across the borders and protecting the country from the potential risks of international trade.  It’s a large, operationally focussed organisation with 1300 staff working throughout New Zealand and in several offices overseas. Described as traditional with one-way information flows, this work environment was plagued by confrontation and mistrust. In 2005, Customs and three unions embarked on a joint campaign to dramatically improve workplace relationships and build better skills for working together. In doing so, the organisation has achieved significant benefits including a smooth and stress-free collective bargaining, the introduction of a number of new front-line initiatives, and trust, respect and confidence has been generated among the parties. For the parties, the last few years have visibly demonstrated that an alternative and more effective way of working together was possible and there is “no going back”.

The Challenge

The Environment

• Highly unionised - over 75% represented by one of four unions
• Traditional, led from the centre, and one-way information flows
• A changed operating environment with global security now high on the agenda
• Increased funding for new technology
• Recruitment of younger staff and people with new technological skills
• A well understood vision and mission

Workplace Relationships

• Tendency for staff to bypass managers and go straight to the union
• Small issues escalating quickly and taking a long time to resolve
• Relationships between managers and unions fraught
• Previous two collective bargaining rounds long and drawn out
• Negotiations followed by misunderstandings, conflict and legal action over interpretation
• Tension and a lack of trust and communication between the four unions
• An “us and them” culture

A New Way of Working

“The aggression and ‘us and them’ became a problem and that’s when as part of the 2005 agreement, we agreed to try using a partnership approach and the PRC.” Union representative

In June 2005, Customs and three unions, COA, NUPE and PSA, settled a three-year collective agreement and sowed the seeds for a partnership.

They established “the Forum” – a joint forum for discussion of shared issues, involving regular meetings and with clear processes and protocols. It was a joint investment to dramatically improve the quality of their workplace relationships.

Partnership Resource Centre

“We were pretty tight in terms of our budget. There was an opportunity to go to the Partnership Resource Centre and say, can you help provide us with some resource for this. Well, there were two things. There was the money; but also, we understood that they had access to some people out there with the skills that we could use.” Manager

The PRC was invited to guide and support the Forum by:

• developing protocols and processes necessary for partnership
• developing and reinforcing constructive communication and behaviours
• building skills in the areas of joint problem-solving and interest based negotiation.

The lead PRC Associate actively worked with the Forum to:

• help to shape rules of engagement and communication
• identify and reinforce constructive language
• keep discussions on the issue at hand and move towards resolution
• provide feedback and guidance between Forum meetings and one-on-one coaching sessions where necessary.

In addition, the PRC Associates provided training in joint problem-solving and interest based negotiation and delivered a series of partnership concept workshops.

Achievements

Since the Forum’s establishment, the achievements made have visibly demonstrated that an alternative and more effective way for the parties to work together was possible.

These include:

• all outstanding issues from the 2005 bargaining resolved
• smooth, stress-free and timely 2008 bargaining round (4 months to complete)
• new skills and behaviours of those involved have made working together easier and more enjoyable
• increased trust generally between management and unions and between unions
• reduced transaction costs in terms of consultation and implementation of new strategies
• introduction of several new strategic initiatives

“The approach to bargaining was significantly different from ’02 and ‘05 to ’08. It was a lot more productive, a lot less sort of ‘he said, she said, you can’t, we won’t’. It was more sort of ‘yes, lets sit down and work out how we can make this place a better place to work and what are the conditions that managers need to make that happen and the staff need as well?’. So it was much more of a problem-solving approach.” Management representative

“I think it matured my outlook as to how you deal with managers and also negotiations. I certainly now probably negotiate a lot better, more effectively now after being through the process than before.” Union representative

Lessons

Many lessons can be drawn from the factors that contributed to Customs’ success, including:

• There was strong will on the part of all parties to change
• A commitment to a shared vision provided a platform on which to build partnership
• Management committed resource to the Forum in terms of staff time
• The terms of reference in the collective agreement provided an explicit commitment by all parties
• Ground rules for engagement ensured a safe environment to explore ideas and talk about issues in an open way
• Forum members stayed committed and focused on key issues without getting distracted or railroaded
• The Forum’s neutral environment allowed members to get to know one another and better understand organisational constraints and opportunities
• External facilitation, training, coaching and guidance helped the Forum get established, gather momentum and keep on track in order to achieve its goals.

“Now it seems to be that the unions and management talk about issues, real issues as opposed to rats and mice type things. But I think that’s part of that trust thing. The ‘them and us’ barrier has come down a bit. I’m not too sure it’s come down with all staff, but definitely with unions.”

“I think the good faith aspect has probably increased, which I think is really, really important. It probably is more of a relationship now.”

“Our lasting value to Customs will be to demonstrate how effective partnerships can contribute to achieving the vision and goals of the organisation.” PRC Associate