Waikato community houses take lead on good employment practice
Representatives from four Waikato community houses have been meeting with Community Waikato, the Department of Labour's Partnership Resource Centre and the Service and Food Workers Union to develop a Multi-Employer Collective Agreement (MECA).
The community houses are passionate about the need to develop common standards and conditions for people working for their organisations. They think that the work they do is important and would like to see the value of their work gain greater recognition.
A MECA is a very positive, collective way of achieving that.
So, what is a MECA?
A Multi Employer Collective Agreement is a collective process where a number of similar organisations (in this case, community houses) have a joint agreement to develop a common set of employment conditions. This helps to create consistency, common standards, and saves time and money compared to when organisations try to do it on their own.
The agreement includes the employer, staff, and the staff union. A MECA is always developed between these three parties. The MECA approach is a bit like having a facilitator in to help ensure that the process runs smoothly and everyone can participate.
This approach is great for smaller organisations which do not have the resources that larger groups do. Working together will support the development of standards and benchmarks for employment policy throughout the sector; it will help secure better funding arrangements leading to improved service quality and security; and it will assist in achieving improved and fairer pay and conditions of employment in the sector. It has the potential to become a national agreement with a role in negotiating with funders at a national level.
A MECA is not costly to put into place either. In fact it is likely to save money on administration time. Because the community houses involved retain complete control over what goes on in the MECA, it isn't going to mean having to suddenly pay out higher pay rates that haven't been budgeted for.
A MECA will be of help to the best run organisations, in fact the best run organisations will be those that have a MECA in place. It will help to enhance the collaborative relationships between employers and staff that we all value within our sector. The MECA will focus on partnership and openness - it is very much a two-way relationship and fits the values ofour sector like a glove.
The group hopes that a MECA will also help funders. They see that by having an acceptable set of standards and clear agreements about wages and conditions for jobs in the sector, funders will be provided with a clear set of guidelines that they know apply to the whole sector. A MECA will give assurances to boards of trustees by helping organisations budget for future employment costs.
A MECA is a positive process designed to focus on good employment practice. It helps to future proof the employment side of the organisation, providing clear structures and removing uncertainty and poor practice, It plays a big part in avoiding employment relationship problems as most of these occur due to unclear expectations.
The Community House MECA pilot is expected to be completed soon and a report on how this project has progressed will be published in the next issue of Workplace Wellbeing’s Mana Mahi.
If you are interested in becoming part of a MECA or would like to learn more about it, contact Jane Stevens at Community Waikato for further information, email jane@communitywaikato.org.nz or phone (07) 838 1583.