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Care workers at the country’s largest provider of Māori-based support for people with disabilities have been told they will be suspended without pay from tomorrow if they take partial-strike action.

The suspension could last for six weeks.

The Public Service Association (PSA), which represents the 38 affected workers, has described the suspension notice “a huge overreaction to low-level industrial action”.

The union held a rally on Sunday to protest the suspension notice.

The workers are employed by Te Roopu Taurima as kaitaataki, or frontline care managers.

Te Roopu Taurima is an independent trust providing services to people of all ethnicities with intellectual impairments in Northland, Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury.

The proposed strike and suspension follow the collapse of long-running negotiations for a new collective agreement, after the trust rejected the recommendations of the Employment Relations Authority (ERA), following four days of mediation.

Last week, the PSA advised the trust that its kaitaataki members would take six weeks of “partial strike action”.

Speaking to the Herald, general secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said this includes a refusal “to do some paperwork” and other “low-level tasks”.

Te Roopu Taurima responded to the PSA’s notice on Friday afternoon with a letter to the union, telling it that the workers would be suspended without pay for the duration of the partial strike.

On Sunday night, a spokesperson for the trust told the Herald, “In response to this action by the PSA, we had no option but to advise staff of our intention to suspend any workers who participate in the strikes starting on Tuesday, in order to ensure continuity of services to the tāngata in our care.

“Our sector faces serious funding and operational challenges, and we remain committed to working constructively and in good faith with the PSA towards a fair and equitable agreement.”

At Sunday’s protest rally outside the Auckland offices of Te Roopu Taurima, Fitzsimons said, “There is no more important work than ensuring that people with disabilities can lead full lives with dignity and be supported.”

PSA general secretary Fleur Fitzsimons addresses disability care workers and supporters at a rally in Auckland on Sunday to protest a threat by Te Roopu Taurima to suspend workers who engage in a "low-level partial strike". Photo / Sylvie Whinray

But, she added, the PSA has been bargaining with the trust since August last year and there have been “full strikes, partial strikes and an oppressive ongoing lockout of additional hours since December”.

The ERA had spent four days this year “trying to get the parties to agree on a fair outcome”. The authority had issued a recommendation to settle the dispute, “but it didn’t settle it”.

Although the PSA “didn’t get everything we wanted”, the union’s bargaining team accepted the plan “and agreed to recommend that our members accept it”.

However, said Fitzsimons, “Te Roopu Taurima has refused to accept the recommendations of the authority.”

The trust responded by saying, “The Employment Relations Authority’s recommendations are not binding on parties, and in making them the authority noted that further mediation may be required. Te Roopu Taurima has requested the PSA attend further mediation to discuss these matters in good faith and work towards resolution, however it has so far declined to do so.”

This morning, Fitzsimons said the union has accepted the request for further mediation, but on condition the trust withdraws the threat of suspension and the earlier lockout of additional hours. The affected workers will be meeting at midday.

Te Roopu Taurima kaitaataki earn a salary of $70,500 a year and are claiming a pay rise in line with inflation. But the dispute is about more than pay.

Fitzsimons claimed at the rally workers could be faced with “harsh and unfair” working conditions amid not receiving a pay rise that would support their “wellbeing”.

She added Te Roopu Taurima was “obsessed” with imposing 90-day trials on new staff.

Fitzsimons called 90-day trials “hideous”, because they “allow workers to be sacked for no reason at all”.

“They leave workers questioning themselves, their own worth and their future. They are cruel and unfair and no human being should be subject to them.”

Disability care workers and others at a PSA rally in Auckland on Sunday to protest a threat by Te Roopu Taurima to suspend workers who engage in a "low-level partial strike". Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Te Roopu Taurima was established in 1999 as part of the “deinstitutionalisation” of many healthcare services, including those for tāngata whaikaha, or disabled people. Its goal was to provide “kaupapa-driven service delivery”.

The trust’s website says this was “a direct response to a system where tāngata whaikaha were institutionalised, and resided in a service environment that was deemed insensitive to Te Ao me ngā Tikanga Māori (Māori world views, customs and practices)”.

Being kaupapa driven, it says, involves whanaungatanga (engagement), tika (correctness and quality), whakapono (trust), aroha (kindness) and kia mārama (transparency).

The trust says these principles inform its work providing residential and vocational support, respite care and support for caregivers, high and complex needs support and mental health services.

Fitzsimons paid tribute yesterday to the work of the trust.

She told the protest, “Te Roopu Taurima was groundbreaking. It is based on kaupapa Māori values”.

But she claimed “their latest behaviour towards their own staff is undermining this proud history.”

Asked about this, the trust said, “We remain steadfast in our duty to ensure the sustainability of our organisation, the wellbeing of our kaimahi, and, most importantly, the best outcomes for our tāngata, in line with our organisation’s values.”

This dispute is not the first time the trust has come under scrutiny.

In 2014, Winston Peters, leader of the NZ First Party, raised questions about its spending practices. Maori Television’s Native Affairs ran a series of programmes, which were followed by investigations by the Serious Fraud Office and forensic accountants at the Ministry of Health.