Electricians Ban Repairs In Time-clocks Dispute

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30289, 15 November 1963, Page 14

Electricians Ban Repairs In Time-clocks Dispute

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, November 14The dispute which culminated this morning in a ban by Hutt Valley Power and Gas Board electrical workers on work outside week-day hours of 8 aan. to 5 p.m. would be taken to the Minister of Labour, the board’s general manager (Mr R. R. Brown) said today. A spokesman for the Electrical Workers’ Union, Mr G. D. Kelly, said earlier that the overtime ban was the sequel to a decision by Mr Brown to abandon a long-standing custom of regular early-morning overtime. Mr Brown’s move, he said, was a reprisal for the men’s rejection of a new time-clock system.

Hospitals and similar institutions would ' not be left without power in an emergency, and the Union would co-operate in the prevention of electrical hazards, said Mr Kelly. . No strike had been threatened. Mr Brown said regular overtime had been stopped as a penalty only after all avenues had been exhausted to answer queries concerning the new clock system. The board was required by law to keep time records, and he knew of no other industry

in the country where this requirement had been flouted, as in this case. The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act made provision for heavy penalties on unions taking strike action in this essential industry. The board had no alternative but' to place the dispute in the' hands of the Minister of Labour to enforce the law. “Full responsibility for any inconvenience to the public must rest with the union. in their thoughtless attitude in magnifying a routine matter into one of major public importance.” said Mr Brown.