Building Overtime Ban Considered

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30190, 23 July 1963, Page 14

Building Overtime Ban Considered

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 22. A New Zealand-wide ban on overtime will be considered by the national executive of the Carpenters’ Union in Wellington tomorrow. The ban was originally instituted by einplqyers in Christchurch after a dispute involving 25 carpenters who seek an increase in wages to 8s 4d an hour, which they claim is the base rate in Auckland and Wellington.

The carpenters then said that if other employers in Christchurch followed the suggestion of the Canterbury Master Builders’ Association that overtime bans should be imposed on all projects, the union would as an act of reprisal impose bans on its own in Wellington and Auckland on projects 'of all firms obeying the association. Today carpenters on two Wellington contracts of P Graham and Son, Ltd., decided to work a strict 40-hour week as a reprisal for the alleged lockout six weeks a o of the 25 Christchurch men. who were also on a Graham job. A spokesman for the Master Builders’ Federation said today he could not comment on the situation. ‘The federation is not taking any action at present, nor till it is warranted,” he said. “It only becomes our concern if and when it spreads.” The union’s ban on construction companies with contracts in Christchurch has

not been imposed in Auckland yet. But union organisers are visiting Auckland jobs warning the men to expect. instructions to work a 40-hour week at short notice.

The Auckland branch of the union fully supported the Canterbury branch in asking that the North Island wage rates be extended to the South Island, said the secretary (Mr A. Russ) today. Mr Russ will discuss imposition of the ban in Auckland with the national executive of the union in Wellington tomorrow.