Power To Decide Watersiders’ Work

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

Power To Decide Watersiders’ Work

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, October 2.

An extension of the power of the Waterfront Industry Tribunal to decide what work is watersiders’ work is contained in the Waterfront Industry Amendment Bill, introduced in Parliament today.

At present no principal order can apply to work which, before 1951, was not done by watersiders.

The measure also clarifies the right of other parties who might wish to appear at tribunal hearings. A lawyer is authorised to appear as an advocate in preliminary proceedings for the purpose of questioning the tribunals jurisdiction. Port conciliation committees will now be entitled to extend the time within

which a worker may appeal against the removal of his name from a bureau register. The preference that port employers had to give workers on tbe bureau register and to permanently-employed watersiders has been amended. Now the tribunal can grant an exemption from any of the provisions of the earlier section. The right of the General Manager of Railways to nominate an employers’ representative to the port conciliation committee at any railway port has been abolished. A new clause gives the commission specifically the function of making arrangements for facilitating the engagement of watersiders, including arrangements that will avoid the unnecessary attendance of watersiders at labour engagement bureaux.