Prepared To Refer Dispute To Court

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30998, 2 March 1966, Page 1

Prepared To Refer Dispute To Court

l.Xeir Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. March 1. Dunlop (N.Z.), Ltd., is prepared to have the dispute over machine timing at its Upper Hutt factory referred to the Arbitration Court.

The Wellington Rubber Workers’ Union wants the opportunity for a spokesman to address a Dunlop shareholders’ meeting.

The union secretary, Mr A. J. Neary, said that under no circumstances would the union meet the employers till the two workers who were dismissed last week for refusing to use machines that were being timed were Mr Neary said that last year the union had “opened its doors” and allowed the works director and an Australian technical expert to address a mass meeting of Dunlop employees to explain why the company wanted to introduce the timing devices. A secret ballot after the meeting decided by 200 to

three against the introduction of the measurement devices. Mr Neary challenged the company to return the courtesy by allowing him to address a shareholders' meeting. He said he felt quite convinced that the shareholders did not support the management policy in the dispute. The company today denied that the dispute was over time and motion studies or work measurement. A spokesman said the timing involved was purely that of machinery and did not involve the measurement of human effort Commenting on this tonight Mr Neary said the company had already told the union on several occasions that the sole purpose of timing machines was to arrive at standards of output in order to fix a bonus scheme.