Barry Matthews

Wellington, Aug 27 NZPA - Corrections chief executive Barry Matthews is confident an arrangement where prison union members are paid to conduct union work is all above board.

At the same time, Corrections Association of New Zealand (Canz) president Beven Hanlon says Corrections Minister Judith Collins is ill-informed and has a gripe against the union.

Corrections is conducting a review after it was revealed the Canz was paid nearly $130,000 last year to subsidise wages and expenses.

The department paid Mr Hanlon to the tune of $44,889 for the time he spent on union business and to cover a replacement for those days.

Ms Collins also said she understood the union had amassed nearly $2 million in savings.

While the former Labour government may have thought the arrangements were OK, "I'm not sure that the taxpayers will think this is acceptable", she told NZPA.

Ms Collins said Mr Hanlon was paid to be a full time corrections officer and "that's what he should be doing".

Mr Hanlon told Radio Live it was no secret Corrections paid union expenses when it arranged meetings.

At the same time, the union paid its own costs for its own meetings. There were no "subsidies" and the arrangements were in his contract, he said.

Comments about a $2m treasure trove were incorrect.

"I would love that, but unfortunately we are only a union of 3000 members and we have pretty modest fees..."

Savings the union did have were to assist members if they went on strike for issues such as alleged employment contract breaches.

"She (Ms Collins) needs to really work out that Corrections managers really don't look after her that well and she gets a lot of bad advice," Mr Hanlon said.

He said issues the union and the Government had clashed on recently, including double-bunking and private prisons, had soured their relationship.

"We don't believe it's any coincidence that all of a sudden (Corrections) are trying to attack the union -- not just the union -- but me personally, and I'm just the spokesperson."

Mr Hanlon said Ms Collins' questioning of costs paid to union members was bizarre, as it was simply business and there were similar arrangements with many other organisations.

He said his contract stated that he could tend to union business two days a week, but in reality there were many times when requests for such leave were declined.

Mr Matthews said he was confident the money going from Corrections to the union was used for correct purposes and the issue was the amount of money and whether it could be less.

"It's all been very carefully monitored, all the approvals have been done and they are approved in a criteria there.

"That's not the issue... Have the authorities been given in accordance with what traditionally has been expected, I suspect the answer to that is yes."

The review was expected to be complete within a fortnight.