TALKS ON MARGINS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31332, 31 March 1967, Page 3

TALKS ON MARGINS

The 6d an hour margin awarded to indentured tradesmen in the railway service by the Railways Tribunal was yesterday discussed by the president of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (Mr J. Dougherty) and thq society’s general secretary (Mr N. A. Collins) with the Cabinet Committee on Government Administration. The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Marshall) was chairman of the special meeting in Wellington. In a telephone interview last evening, Messrs Dougherty and Collins said that the Government would not agree to pass on the 6d to acting tradesmen who were performing tradesmen’s work.

Nor would the Government agree to pass on the 6d to tradesmen in other Government departments without the case first being argued before the Public Service Tribunal. Messrs Dougherty and Collins said that this was a complete change of Government policy and practice. The ruling rates survey due to be released soon would absorb the 6d margin, they said. This was a violation of arbitration and over-ruled the authority of the tribunal. The union officials said that the Government’s action in refusing to accept the continuation of the tribunal’s decision meant a changed situation in the skilled labourers’ claim which had

not been granted by the tribunal. Both Messrs Dougherty and Collins said that this was the reason for the calling of the national council together at a special meeting next Wednesday. Messrs Dougherty and Collins yesterday went to see the Cabinet Committee on Government Administration with the Combined State Services Organisation. They said they felt it was important to have discussions with the Government before calling a meeting of the national council. The decision to absorb a 6d hourly skill margin in the current ruling rates survey “shocked and deeply concerned” members of the Rail-way-Tradesmen’s Association, said the president (Mr D. A. Crosado, of Christchurch). “We have strongly protested to the Government,” he said. “There must be a solution if this country is to have available efficient and highly skilled tradesmen to cope with the increasing technological demands of modern industry. “This Government action destroys the incentive for young people to sacrifice most of their teen-age years in serving apprenticeships,” he said.