DISPUTE AT WHAKATU

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29800, 17 April 1962, Page 17

DISPUTE AT WHAKATU

Judgment For Employers (N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 16. A judgment in favour of the employers in a dispute with the freezing workers at the Whakatu works was given by the Arbitration Court today. The dispute arose from a change in the sequence of operations at the works involving separation of pelts from the rumps and tails of sheep. The change was made because the management had become dissatisfied with the existing process because of the high percentage of mutilated pelts. The union objected to the change on the ground that it made it impossible for pelters to comply with clause 13 of the Freezing Workers’ Award. The Court could not accept that contention, the judgment said. “It is common ground that industrial relations at the Whakatu works have been very satisfactory for a number of years and the Court considers, now that it has declared what it believes to be the rights of the employer, the exercise by the parties of common sense and tolerant goodwill should enable the present difficulties to be overcome and the satisfactory relations of the past to be restored,” said the Court.