The Public Service Association is considering more legal action over Government job cuts after it won its recent dispute against the Ministry of Education.
The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found fault with the ministry's approach to cutting more than 700 jobs as part of the Government's cost-savings drive.
1News spoke to Aleeta Hau, who was among those told their jobs at the Ministry of Education would be cut.
Speaking about the day she found out about the cuts, Hau said it "didn't hit me until the day it was released".
"Then I just went through all these emotions. The first one being I was so embarrassed because people could see what had been proposed for my role.
"And I had been there for 19 plus years. This is my seventh restructure and the worst I've felt."
She opted for voluntary redundancy and recently gave evidence for the Public Service Association (PSA) when it took the ministry to the ERA.
"The approach that the ministry took was not reflective of looking after your people, putting your people first," she said.
The ERA found the ministry had acted unlawfully and had not fully consulted with the PSA, which breached a clause in the collective agreement.
"This decision says you can't just disregard public servants' rights, you can't run roughshod over union agreements, and you have to do change properly," New Zealand Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff said.
"And I think this decision does cause governments, employers to rethink the strategy they've taken."
The PSA plans to examine possible legal action related to half a dozen other agencies.
"We have similar clauses in other government agencies, and we will be looking very carefully about them and understanding the implications of this decision on those agencies and those members," PSA assistant secretary Fluer Fitzsimons said.
The Public Service Commission told 1News it was aware of a very small number of agencies with a similar clause but hadn't identified any with the exact same one.
"I think before we see legal action, we may see some chief executives go back to look at their processes in the way their managers are conducting the processes and having a rethink to establish whether their compliant with the collective agreement," Employment law lecturer Yvonne Oldfield said.
However, University of Auckland law expert Simon Schofield said he "almost certainly" expected the ERA ruling would trigger further legal action against public service cuts.
"That is just a reality of the drivers of these cost savings — that jobs are being lost — so the PSA is trying to protect its members ... And so they've got to leverage that."
He said the new government's expectations of public services to bring down costs quickly meant that "employers are facing a lot of pressure in these times to make decisions in a hurry, to make sure they are cutting costs".
"But the difficulty is that they have really got to stand back and look at the provisions of the collective agreements, to ensure they are crossing their Ts and dotting their Is. And the Ministry of Education here has failed to live up to the provisions of the collective agreement."
The Ministry of Education's redundancy process is now on pause, and both parties are expected to negotiate and find a solution.
The ministry has 28 days to appeal the decision.
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