WATERFRONT WORK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 217, 13 September 1944, Page 6

WATERFRONT WORK

NON-UNION SECTION

METHOD OF ALLOCATION 1

Dissatisfaction is felt by a section of non-union watersiders at the method of allocating work on the wharves. The section concerned comprises men who depend on waterfront work for their income and have been issued with permanent waterfront passes by -the manpower officer.

' A representative of these men stated this morning that temporary passholders—men who worked a 40hour week in other jobs—often received emplo3 r ment in the 6-9 p.m. period before' the permanent passholders were placed. It was contended that men whose sole source of income was the waterfront should receive preference over those workers who were already assured of a weekly wage in other jobs and were merely making extra money bj' their work on the wharves.

There was little activity on the waterfront at the present time and often there was no employment offering through the day, so that the three hours in the evening, when the union members went off, was the only opportunity the non-union men had of working, he said. Dissension was caused when the temporary passholders were called before the permanent passholders.

The number of permanent passholders was 760, but the actual number available, day in and day out, had been estimated at under 300. The remainder were employed elsewhere, where the passes were needed for access to the wharves in the course of their employment. Temporary passholders numbered anything up to 200.. The men's spokesman referred to an agreement made with the Waterfront Controller, Mr. W. J. Cuthbert, that a gate should be cut in the pen and the gates on the main road kept shut, so that only permanent passholders could gain admittance. After some delay this agreement has been fulfilled, but the arrangements had been cancelled when it .was alleged that permanent passholders had refused to accept certain classes of work.

Commenting on these complaints, Mr. Cuthbert said this afternoon that the time-keepers had been instructed to give preferenc - to permanent passholders on the understanding that the men adhered to certain conditions. They had not done : this and had failed to report individual breaches to the Port of Auckland Shipping and Stevedores' Association. There had been good grounds for the discontinuance of the preference system.