Builders put squeeze on overtime work

Press, 2 September 1977, Page 22

Builders put squeeze on overtime work

PA Auckland The Auckland Master Builders’ Association has recommended to its members that they put their workers on a strict 40-hour week, to conserve what employment the industry still has available.

The president of the association (Mr R. G. Lawton) said, however, that work on some contracts might not be able to follow the recommendation, because of tight schedules

"The purpose is to try to preserve as much employment as possible — to try to keen the industry as fully employed as possible.” he said. The recommendation is in Itne with last year’s agreement between the Federation of Labour and the Master Builders’ Federation, that

hours should first be cut to save making workers redundant.

The secretary of the Auckland Carpenters’ Union (Mi P. Purdue) said the reduc tion in hours would only delay the time when men would have to be put off. The reduction, he said, would! mean savage cuts in carpenters’ wages. The Canterbury Master Builders’ Association has no plan to recommend a strict 40-hour week, according to one of its vice-presidents. Mr B J. Phillips. In any case, he said, most local builders were sticking to an eight-hour day at the moment.

It was fairly traditional for builders to work overtime, said Mr Phillips. “It is the privileged few who have it at the moment.”