Electricians To Go Back To Work

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31153, 1 September 1966, Page 16

Electricians To Go Back To Work

(New Zealand Press Association?

WELLINGTON, August 31.

Wellington Harbour Board electricians have agreed to go back to work tomorrow morning at the old rates of pay and conditions.

The secretary of the North Island Electrical Workers’ Union (Mr A. J. Neary) said tonight that the decision to resume work was made possible by the intervention of the Minister of Labour (Mr Shand) who has set up a committee of inquiry into the dispute.

Mr Neary said the harbour board had agreed to the union's request that the old rates of pay and hours be restored while the committee considered the dispute.

The decision was made at a special meeting of the union tonight. The Federation of Labour was taking no action on the strike, its president (Mr T. E. Skinner) said today. He said the dispute was a matter for the union and the harbour board. The federation was not involved. Mr Skinner said the workers involved would not be affected by the Arbitration Court’s decision on the present wage hearing because they were receiving more than the minimum wage. The collier Kokiri, which arrived last night with a cargo of West Coast coal, was

idle today after electricians refused to work a crane switch. They worked the switch last week to maintain coal supplies to hospitals. Because of the dispute Wellington has been without Westport coal for domestic users for a fortnight Supplies of Westport coal are also short for gasworks, hospitals and industrial users such as brickworks.

Supplies of slower-burning Taupiri coal were being used to supplement and replace the West Coast coal but there was a limit. State coal officials said today. Domestic users had used the North Island coal in con-

siderable quantities in the last fortnight Carbonettes had been in short supply all winter, and were not in stock at the moment The dispute is over the hours and pay rates applicable to harbour board electricians. Since the new waterfront hours were introduced in March, 1965, the electricians have been working those hours. On August 2 the board established new working hours which reduced an electrician’s pay for a 40-hour week by £2 9s 2, Mr Neary said. The union wanted the matter submitted to arbitration, but the harbour board had insisted on choosing its own arbitrator and specifying the duration of his decision, Mr Neary said.