WHICH UNION?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 220, 16 September 1940, Page 3

WHICH UNION?

INDUSTRIAL APPEAL. The question of whether inspectors of electrical work employed by the Auckland Electric Power Board should be regarded as coming within the scope of the Electrical Workers' Union or of the Local Authorities Officers' Union was involved in an appeal heard by the Arbitration Court to-day. The appeal was against a decision of Mr. J. A. Gilmour, S.M., which held that such inspectors were provided for by the Electrical Workers' Union, and they c-ould not at the same time be regarded as within the scope of the membership rule of the Local Authorities Officers' Union. Mr. F. McCarthy, for the appellants, who were the inspectors concerned, said there were 16 inspectors employed by the Auckland Electric Power Board who were affected, and he submitted that within the rules of the L.A.O. Union, as salaried officers, and by close association with the L.A.O. Union members, they were properly within the scope of the .L.A.O. Union rather than of the Electrical Workers' Union. Mr. W. R. Tuck said the Power Board did not take any part in the case, and on behalf of the Electrical Workers' Union he submitted that the magistrate's decision that the inspectors should be members of that union was correct. Incidentally, he called attention to the fact that the appeal came from individual workers, and that only individual employers or unions had the right to make such appeal. The question, he reminded the Court, affected inspectors in other power boards in the province. The Court reserved its decision.