Postmen’s Dispute Ends After Day Of Talks

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30190, 23 July 1963, Page 16

Postmen’s Dispute Ends After Day Of Talks

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 22. The Wellington postmen’s dispute ended tonight and the postmen will be back at their normal jobs tomorrow. The soap-

powder samples which caused the six-day-old dispute will be delivered from vans staffed by postmen on a co-operative basis after the completion of normal deliveries.

A compromise between the Post Office and the postmen was announced this evening by the DirectorGeneral of Posts (Mr J. B. Darnell), after day-long talks with representatives of the men, administrative officials and officers of £he Post Office Association.

No agreement was reached regarding lost wages. The rights of the postmen to seek any legal redress open to them has been safeguarded in the agreement. In his statement, Mr Darnell said he informed today’s meeting at the outset that he was prepared to consider any reasonable proposals put forward “because of the delays in delivery of second-class mail and the need to complete delivery of the soap samples.” The postmen had said they were prepared to return to work to assist the departmen’ in meeting its commitments in the delivery of the soap samples and put forward a proposal about delivery from vars on a co-operative basis after normal deliveries had

been completed, said Mr Darnell.

This was agreed to with the following conditions:— All postmen and women at present absent from duty as a result of the dispute would be reinstated. The incident would not be recorded on their personal files or held against them in any way. Disposal of the back-log of second-class work would be reasonably spread over the next few days after resumption of duty. A study of the regulations covering the acceptance and delivery of similar mail matter would be undertaken in conjunction with the Post Office Association. Postmen would not have the right to discriminate as to what mail matter would be delivered, but it was

understood that any real problems about delivery were always subject to discussion by the association with the department.

The postmen continued to maintain that the dispute constituted a lock-out and that as a result they had a legal claim for wages in respect of the days lost, Mr Darnell's statement said. The Department did not agree. It had been resolved that there was no option but to leave the initiative with the postmen, individually or collectively, to prosecute the claim through legal processes

A spokesman for the postmen said later tonight that although a few postmen had still not been contacted, all who had, had agreed to return to work tomorrow morning They were satisfied with the compromise except for the question of lost wages which would be considered at a meeting later tonight.