Service & Food Workers Union

The Service & Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota (SFWU) was a trade union in New Zealand. It was affiliated with the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and the New Zealand Labour Party.

SFWU Nga Ringa Tota

Service & Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota
Merged into	E tū
Dissolved	October 2015
Headquarters	Auckland, New Zealand
Location	New Zealand
Members	23,000+
Key people	John Ryall, National Secretary
Affiliations	NZCTU, Labour Party
Website	www.sfwu.org

A car with the livery of the Service & Food Workers Union

The SFWU was organised into five industry sectors:

• Age Care, Disability, Health & Community Services
• Catering, Cleaning and Contract Services
• Clerical, Administration & Technical Services
• Food & Beverage Manufacturing & Processing
• Hospitality, Tourism & Entertainment Services

The Service & Food Workers Union filed a case with the Employment Court against Terranova, a rest home operator, in relation to allegations that it paid its caregivers lower wages that it would otherwise pay if its work force was not predominantly made up of women.^[1] The case went all the way to the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, where it was upheld in 2015. The government then took it on itself to negotiate a settlement, which was announced in April 2017 as "the largest pay increase in New Zealand's history".^[2]

In October 2015, the Service & Food Workers Union merged with the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union to form E tū.^[3]