Near-infrared spectra of 133 red giant stars from 10 Galactic open clusters and two Galactic globular clusters spanning 2.2dex in metallicity and 11Gyr in age are presented. We combine this sample with 10 clusters from Cole and collaborators (2004MNRAS.347..367C) to investigate the CaII triplet line strengths and their relation to cluster metallicity and position along the red giant branch. We show that characterizing the stellar surface gravity using K_s_-band photometry (relative to the horizontal branch) taken from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey allows for metallicity measurements at least as precise as those derived using V- or I-band data. This has the great advantage that uniform photometry and reliable astrometry are available for a large number of clusters. Using K_s_-band photometry also reduces the effect of differential reddening within a given cluster. We find no significant evidence for age or metallicity effects to the linear CaII triplet-metallicity relationship over the small range in magnitudes studied when homogeneous reference metallicities are used. We derive the first spectroscopic metallicity and new radial velocity estimates for five open clusters: Berkeley 81, Berkeley 99, IC 1311, King 2 and NGC7044. King2 has an anomalous radial velocity compared with the local disc population. We discuss the possibility that it is part of the Monoceros tidal stream.