Incentive Scheme For Deep Cove

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30562, 3 October 1964, Page 25

Incentive Scheme For Deep Cove

A wage and incentives agreement of £lm had been negotiated for the men driving the six-mile tail-race tunnel at Deep Cove, said the general secretary of the New Zealand Workers’ Union (Mr H. J. Allen) yesterday. The agreement, he said, had been reached by his union with the contractors, the Utah-Williamson-Burnett consortium. Mr Allen said the deal would apply to. a minimum of 100 men or a maximum of 140 men working in the three shifts. Mr Allen has returned from a two-day visit to Deep Cove. He said the agreement for an incentive scheme in which automation, mechanisation and the human element had to be taken into account was reached after 12 hours of discussions and adjournments. Representatives of the men on the job took part. “It is now expected that the tunnel will be completed before the scheduled date,” Mr Allen said. There were approximately 100 experienced underground workers concerned and it was anticipated that when the few more experienced tunnellers required were recruited the present hourly rate of 10s Bd, including the basic rate of 8s 2d, plus the 2s 6d bonus, would rapidly rise in the next week or so by 50 per cent or more. Only an additional .24 feet was required each week to increase the present tunnel driving rate of 136 ft a week to the starting point of 160 ft. This rate could possibly then treble itself until the minimum 240 ft a week, aimed

at by the contractors, was achieved.

If this result was achieved undoubtedly the project would be completed well ahead of schedule, Mr Allen said. . Following the executive negotiations, a special stopwork meeting of all workers engaged on shift-work underground endorsed the signing of a local agreement for a term of 12 months.