NZSA CEO’s July Report

In this update, NZSA CEO Gary Morrison talks inclusion of Security Officers on Schedule 1A of the Employment Relations Act, Fair Pay Agreements, Covid-19 vaccinations, licensing for pubs, building consent for access control works, and more.

Gary Morrison is CEO of the New Zealand Security Association (NZSA). A qualified accountant, Gary originally joined Armourguard Security as a junior accountant and held several roles over two decades prior to appointment as GM for New Zealand and Fiji, after which he established Icon Security Group.

Fair Pay Agreements

In April this year the Government announced the design of the Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) system. The design was informed by the Fair Pay Agreement Working Group and public consultation, as well as involvement from the NZCTU (representing unions) and Business New Zealand (representing employers and industry sectors). Current planning is that the Bill will be introduced in November of this year and that the first agreement negotiations will be initiated in early 2022.

Whilst the detail is yet to be fully announced, it is clear that Security workers will be one of the first sectors to be covered by a FPA and as such, bargaining will be required between Etu (being the union covering security workers) and employers (under co-ordination of the NZSA or an alternate industry body). Again, this will have a significant and far-reaching impact on those providers offering guarding, patrol and cash-in-transit services and it is important that members are kept well informed on developments.

We will provide on-going updates as more information becomes available. However, for more detailed background, please refer to our newsletter Important Employment Matters on our website.

Covid-19 vaccinations

It is apparent that the Government has back-tracked on earlier plans to prioritise the vaccination of essential service workers under a separate Group and vaccinations will be scheduled on the basis of:

• Group 1 – Border and Managed Isolation and Quarantine Workers

• Group 2 – High-risk frontline workers and people living in high risk places

• Group 3 – People who are at risk (over 65, underlying health issues, disabled, caring for a person with a disability, pregnant or an adult in a custodial setting)

• Group 4 – Everyone aged 16 and over

We are aware that members are often finding this a difficult area from an employment perspective and offer the following guidance:

As a general rule, employers can encourage, but not force staff to receive Covid-19 vaccinations. Employers cannot engage or employ staff without Covid-19 Vaccination to work if: • The work is in specific areas legally requiring Covid-19 vaccination (generally at the border or MIQ); or • It is otherwise unsafe for that person to work due to the level of risk (under the Health and Safety at Work Act).

To assess what can/should be done:

First Stage: Work Location - Where does the employee work? Does the Covid-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order 2021 apply (this lists who must be vaccinated to work)? Workers at Managed

Quarantine and Managed Isolation Facilities are unable to work at these sites unless vaccinated.

If this does not apply, move to next stage.

Second Stage: Role Risk Exposure - What are the risks applicable to the specific role?

What is the likelihood of a worker being exposed to Covid-19 whilst performing the role; and what are the potential consequences of that exposure on others (e.g. community spread, vulnerable workers)?

If the role involves regular contact with vulnerable people (as defined by the MoH), the consequences of passing the virus on to them could be significant, and so if there is a high likelihood that the person performing the role may be exposed to Covid-19, it is likely that the role needs to be performed by a vaccinated person.

Third Stage: Other Considerations - Take account of other factors. Good faith applies at all stages of the risk assessment. That requires open and responsive communication with the affected workers, and fair process. Any requirement to be vaccinated that is not related to health and safety will not be justified.

Care needs to be taken for instance where an employee’s own circumstances/health/beliefs mean they cannot receive the vaccination. In those cases options such as site or role relocation should be explored and balanced against the second stage risk assessment.

Licensing for pubs, clubs and other licensed premises

The PSPLA has recently provided further clarification around the licensing requirements for pubs, clubs and other licensed premises.

Section 11 of the Act states a person or entity is only required to hold a licence as a crowd controller if, for valuable consideration, they are carrying on the business of screening entry, keeping order, or removing any person from a place.

The fact that a business employs crowd controllers to screen entry and keep order does not in itself mean that a pub or club is carrying on the business of being a crowd controller and critically, where they are not charging another entity for the service (being valuable consideration), a licence is not required.

The exception to this would be where a pub or club is using their staff to provide crowd controller duties for other entities and charging for the service. This meets the definition of valuable consideration and the pub or club needs to hold a company licence under the Crowd Controller category.

For larger operations that have security departments and recruit and train crowd controllers for deployment at several of their own establishments, it may be arguable whether they are doing it for valuable consideration however it would be best practice for the business to hold a licence under the PSPPI Act.

From an individual licence holder perspective, all staff employed as crowd controllers responsible for screening entry, keeping order and removing a person from a place are required to hold a Certificate of Approval under the Crowd Controller category.

Building consent applications for access control works This continues to be a contentious area with councils applying different interpretations and requirements however, the following guidelines were provided by Christchurch City Council with regards to the documentation they require/expect when assessing a building consent discretionary exemption application for proposed access control works:

• Plans clearly showing the locations of access-controlled doors.

• Specifications of the products being used including specific reference for emergency release and where a fire alarm interconnection is installed.

• A detailed statement outlining the contractor’s relevant experience in installing similar systems and their quality assurance and training measures.

• Confirmation that on completion the installer will issue a construction statement confirming compliance and indicating the emergency release and fire alarm interconnection (the statement of compliance should reference NZBC C/AS2 (2019) paragraph 3.15.2 and 3.15.7).

• Confirmation that on completion the installer will provide asbuilt floor plans confirming the locations of installed accesscontrolled doors as per the approval.

• Confirmation that photographs of the door installations will be taken and provided to Council on completion.

• Confirmation that an IQP, separate from the individual installer, will provide a test and confirmation compliance following the installation.

It could be reasonably assumed that similar documentation is required for a building consent application. Please note that this list should not be considered as definitive however it may assist when seeking a consistent and common-sense approach from local councils.

Virtual Reality Security Training Platform

We are pleased to advise that a handful of providers are now signed up and using the platform for the delivery of their CoA training.

Initial feedback from learners and employers has been exceptional and all have commented on the benefit of experiencing real-life scenarios as part of the learning and the positive reinforcement of core skills such as risk assessment, wearing PPE and providing recorded incident reports.

For further information on the SkillsVR Security Training platform or to arrange a live or online demonstration, please contact Chris Thomas on 021 771173 or chris@ skillsvr.com.

Employment Relations Act changes

Government has passed an Order in Council, effective 1 July 2021, that extends Part 6A of Schedule 1A of the Employment Relations Act 2000 to include Security Officers.

Effectively this now means that Security Officers, defined as property guards, crowd controllers, mobile security patrols, cash-intransit officers and those who monitor premises on site, are given protections when their employment is impacted by restructuring that results in the contract for service shifting to another provider or taken in-house.

In these situations there is an obligation on the new party providing the service to offer employment to the incumbent employees on terms and conditions no less favourable than they currently enjoy. This includes the transfer of leave and service entitlements and also prevents subsequent restructuring such as reduced hours or payments.

In general, the new Order does not apply to restructuring situations where agreements were reached between companies before 1 July 2021.

The NZSA has documentation available to members to explain and enable the process for both outgoing and incoming service providers:

• NZSA Overview and Definition

• NZSA Member Guidance Part 6A

• NZSA Part 6A letter for Security Workers

• NZSA Part 6A letter for Customers

• Part 6A Exempt Employer Repealed letter

• NZSA recommended Employee Transfer Information template: – Costs Information

• NZSA recommended Employee Transfer Information template: – Individualised Employee Information

• NZSA notes to Employee Transfer Information templates

To obtain a copy of these documents please email nzsa@ security.org.nz.

NZSA webinar on Employment Relations Act changes

Andre Reynolds provides insights on the impact of changes to the Employment Relations Act. The NZSA webinar discusses what it means to the security industry and what is required of employers to accommodate the change.

This is now available for viewing on the NZSA website www.security.org.nz.