Bar Dispute Not Settled

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31501, 16 October 1967, Page 1

Bar Dispute Not Settled

There was widespread speculation among barmen in Christchurch on Saturday afternoon that they would be advised by their union to begin working after 7 p.m. in anticipation of a conciliation meeting in Wellington tomorrow and an undertaking by the New Zealand Hotel Association that any decisions would be retrospective. But no instructions were received.

Both the president of the Canterbury Hotel Association (Mr A. F. G. McGregor) and the secretary of the Canterbury Hotel Workers’ Union (Mr L. N. Short) said last evening that there had been no new developments in the dispute pending the Wellington meeting.

Neither knew if there was any basis for a report that one hotel which had been closed at 7 p.m. during the week opened until 10 p.m. with regular barmen working. Mr Short said the union had not made any inspections on Saturday evening. Generally the hotels that have been observing 7 o'clock closing continued to do so. There were somt “sit-ins” with customers buying jugs before 7 p.m. and staying to drink them, but inquiries at

hotels did not bring any reports of prolonged stays. Hotelkeepers in the main have now accepted “sitters-in” who cause no trouble, but they did not expect many on Saturday evening as bottle store sales were normal for a Saturday and they thought there would be the usual Saturday evening gatherings at homes, as there were before later closing. The Secretary of Labour (Mr N. S. Woods) said in Wellington on Saturday that

the parties would meet in voluntary conciliation tomor-] row under the chairmanship' of a former Secretary of Lab- 1 our (Mr H. L. Bockett). Mr J. J. Williams, the chief executive officer of the New Zealand Hotel Association, then said his organisation had accepted the offer, and suggested that in the public interest union members should return to work on the basis of their rostered hours. If the union agreed there would be retrospective payment on the basis of anV decision reached. At the meeting tomorrow Mr McGregor will be accompanied by Mr A. Ballantyne, and Mr Short will have his assistant secretary, Mr C. McCready, with him. No date has been set for hearing by the Canterbury Licensing Committee of an application by the Hotel Association on behalf of about 80 per cent of its members to close bars at 7 p.m. until November 11.