AMENITIES ON WHARVES

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26605, 15 December 1951, Page 6

AMENITIES ON WHARVES

HEALTH OFFICERS’ CRITICISM

SUBMISSIONS TO ROYAL COMMISSION (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, Dec. 14. Most of the amenities provided for waterfront workers are well below the standards required for other industrial workers. Arrangements for safety on the waterfronts are also of a low standard. These points were made in submissions to the Royal Commission on the Waterfront Industry to-day by officers of the Health Department. Dr. C. Janet Brown, District Industrial Medical Officer in Wellington, reported in detail on the health, welfare. and first aid facilities at Wellington. She said that the lower standard of amenities for waterfront workers resulted largely from the absence of statutory requirements covering the industry, and the division of responsibility among the large number of organisations concerned with waterfront operations. She recommended that the standards of amenities for all workers in all ports be governed by legislation, for example the Factories Act, 1946, and that a single authority be made responsible for the provision of the statutory requirements. The commission also heard a statement from an executive officer of the Standards Institute on standardisation as a means of securing greater efficiency in the handling of cargoes.