Māori Television has today responded to a planned strike by staff members, saying they are "disappointed" that E tū Union has taken a step they believe is "more about public posturing".
The written statement from Māori Television comes after E tū Union announced they are planning to strike on August 8, following an unsuccessful six months of pay negotiations.
Māori Television chief executive Keith Ikin said despite the strike threats, they remain committed to end the "prolonged" collective bargaining process.
"We believe the offer put forward to the union at talks yesterday is both fair and reasonable and supports the organisation’s performance-based remuneration approach," Mr Ikin said.
"We are disappointed that the union has taken a position that appears to be more about public posturing than supporting its members.
"A contingency plan has been put in place to ensure that our viewers are not impacted by any potential strike action and that they can continue to enjoy our programmes."
E tū communications industry coordinator, Joe Gallagher says the union is disappointed with Mr Ikin's "suggestion that the union is obstructing pay talks".
"We completely reject this," Mr Gallagher said in a statement this afternoon.
"We met with our members on Thursday after talks with Maori TV where they made an improved offer. While we appreciate the effort that went into that, our members rejected it," he said.
"Maori TV offered a pay rise of 0.9 percent and we asked them to increase that by 0.1 percent and also sought an extra day of annual leave.
"Our response to their offer is extremely modest and to suggest we’re posturing in the media is rubbish.
"We are not posturing: we are representing the wishes of our members, who rejected an offer that’s not quite there," he said.
"A tiny tweak is all that’s needed to resolve this dispute. So, our message to Keith Ikin is to stop trying to score points in the media and let’s get this deal done."
On Tuesday E tū said they believed the management of Māori Television were "undermining the bargaining process" after handing out Christmas bonuses last year.
The payments, as well as permanent pay rises that were handed out in January, went to employees who were not members of the union, Mr Gallagher said.
They happened at the same time as the company was "telling us they have no money", he said.
"Our members feel they've been discriminated against for being, and belonging to, E tū," Mr Gallagher said.
A strike, slated to start on August 8 and last 24 hours, comes after more than six months of negotiations with the union that E tū described as having stalled.
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