Dirty tricks? Toilet paper company employees threatened with legal action

Employees of a toilet paper manufacturer in New Zealand are being threatened with a $500,000 legal action, according to a union, weeks after the workers were locked out without pay by its own company.

The Pulp and Paper Workers Union announced that the manufacturer wants to make 67 of its own employees "jointly and severally liable" for $542,852 of damages plus costs. 

The legal action is reportedly connected to the technicalities over a strike notice issued in July, but the union insisted that its strike action was legal, and the company's action is "without merit."

The legal action comes three weeks after 145 employees of the manufacturer were locked out of its mill in Kawerau, preventing them from reporting to work and getting paid.

The lockout took place after the union and the company failed to reach an agreement during the wage negotiations, with the union saying it requested for a pay rise equal to the rate of inflation.

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Tane Phillips, union secretary, said that the legal action against the employees is an "absolute punch in the guts" for the workers locked out without pay.

"I've had members call me saying they feel sick to their stomach, they feel like the company is going after their families," said Phillips in a statement. "This is part of a pattern of vindictive behaviour from the Australian management who are trying to break the union and scare our members into giving up."

The secretary, however, stressed that they will not be intimidated by the company's "bully-boy threats."

"We are not going to be intimidated by expensive lawyers or bully-boy threats. All we are asking for is for our pay to keep up with inflation," he said. "The company needs to stop the bullying tactics and end the lockout now."

Phillips told Stuff that they have until September 8 to respond to the company's legal action.