REPAIRING THE WANGANELLA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25160, 16 April 1947, Page 5

REPAIRING THE WANGANELLA

0 WORK RESUMED

MR S. RITCHIE TO PRESIDE OVER TRIBUNAL

(P.A. WELLINGTON, April 15. Fifty-three days'after the Wanganella was declared “black,” the secretary of the Wellington Boilermakers’ Union, Mr p. E. Warner, instructed his men to resume working on material for use in the renair of thi liner. Work on the liner m the floating dock was resumed this morning, but the uncertainty is not yet ended. Although both unions and employers have agreed on a tribunal to determine special payments to shoreworkers engaged on the Wanganella. there still exists differences of opinion over the terms of reference for the tribunal. The unions want the tribunal to consider two senarate issues —special payments to boilermakers while the liner was still on Barrett’s reef, and additional payment for work done while the ship is on the floating dock. The employers hold that the second claim can be considered bv the tribunal, but assert that the question of special payments for the time the Wanganella was on the reef is not a dispute. They claim that special payments were made then bv agreement, and accepted bv the unionists.

Employers, and workers’ representatives have ’ failed to agree on the choice of a chairman for the tribunal under the Strikes and Lockouts Emergency Regulations which the Minister of Labour (Mr A. McLagani agreed to appoint. The employers have since been informed that the Minister will appoint none of the persons recommended bv them or the workers. He has chosen Mr S Ritchie, a Conciliation Commissioner, to preside over the tribunal.