ELECTRICAL WORKERS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23804, 25 November 1942, Page 4

ELECTRICAL WORKERS

CLAIM FOR DIRT MONEY COURT RESERVES DECISION Failure of negotiations to settle that portion of the electrical workers’ claim relating to dirt money in glue and freezing works was responsible for an application yesterday to the Arbitration Court in Christchurch. Decision , was reserved. The parties, were the New Zealand (except northern) Amalgamated Engineering and Related Trades Industrial Union of Workers, and J. Alexander and other employers resident in the Nelson, Westland, Marlborough, and Canterbury industrial districts. Mr G. T. Thurston represented the union, ' Mr H. F. Rutland the employers, and - Mr C. G. Wilkin appeared for interested freezing companies. Mr Justice Tyndall presided, and associated with him were Mr W. Cecil Prime (representing the employers) and Mr A. L. Monteith (representing the employees). The union claimed dirt money at the rate of Is 6d a day for all work done by any worker covered by the provisions of the award in cement, chemical, soap, and glue works; also in foundries and tanneries. The application was also intended to cover employment in freezing chambers while freezing was being carried out, and storage battery work in the departments of freezing works, such as blood pumps, sewage pumps, hash presses, digesters, and paunch cutters. It was likewise claimed that other electrical work such as installations or demolitions (which came under the term “dirty work”) should be paid at the same rate. “We have been successful in settling all points in connexion with the award with the exception of these two,” Mr Thurston informed the Court. “Now we are forced to come here in order to clarify the award.” It was the hope of the union, he added, that the Court would direct a settlement similar to that in the metal trades award. Evidence was given in support of the claim by William Christie Rae and Albert Dixon, electricians, and by Owen Archibald Keith, works manager, Belfast. on behalf of the freezing companies. Mr Butland (to the witness Rae): Is it not a fact that you have received this dirt money in recent months, and that you have been reasonably satisfied with it Witness: Yes, but I believe in having things written down in black and white. His Honour: All you want is the practice of the last three months being written into the award?— That is so. After hearing argument, the Court reserved its decision.