Yesterday saw a major win for some of New Zealand’s top athletes.  

The Employment Relations Authority has ruled in favour of the Athletes’ Cooperative, forcing High Performance Sport NZ to engage in collective bargaining with the co-op. 

HPS had previously rejected attempts to hash out a collective agreement on the basis that they did not formally employ athletes.  

Former Olympic Rower Mahe Drysdale is spearheading the co-op's efforts, telling Mike Hosking that he’s not sure why HPS tried to avoid it for so long. 

He said that all they want to do is get on with this and change sport for the better in New Zealand.  

The crux of the situation, Drysdale told Hosking, is getting better conditions for athletes and allowing them to have input into how the system is run. 

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