Shop staff seek pay for stoppage

Press, 14 August 1978, Page 1

Shop staff seek pay for stoppage

Industrial Reporter

Christchurch shops will be open as usual tomorrow morning in spite of a stopwork meeting by members of the Canterbury Shop Assistants’ Union at the Avon Theatre, at 9 a.m. The burning issue, however, is whether the shop assistants will be paid for the hour or so they are at the meeting. The union has written to employers explaining the purpose of the meeting and expressing the hope that wages would not be deducted, But the Canterbury Employers’ Association has refused to make a recommendation. The association has left the matter to the individual retailer. Under the award there is no obligation to pay employees who attend the meeting. “When the union negotiated the clause it knew there would be no obligation on the part of employers to pay. If Mr Alderdice wants to raise the hopes of his members by circularising employers that is his business,” said the director of the association (Mr N. M. West). Most big retail firms appear to be delaying a decision. Of five big retailers asked yesterday, oniv one had made a decision on wages. The retail manager of

the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association of Canterbury, Ltd (Mr T. A. Gyde) said that staff who attend the meeting would be paid “on this occasion,” but there was no assurance that they would be paid for future meetings. He said that there would be representatives from all Fanners’ stores. One of the terms of the clause in the award is that sufficient staff will remain in shops to ensure that essential work is done. The word “essential” is not defined. Tomorrow’s meeting will be the union’s first authorised stop - work meeting under the award. There is provision for two a year.

The secretary of the union (Mr B. A. Alderdice) said that the meeting had

been called to discuss remits for the next round of award talks. The clause allowing for meetings in work time had been sought because like other unions, the Shop Assistants’ Union had trouble getting members to meetings held in the evenings. “We are often criticised because we do not seem to be carrying out members’ views, but if we do not see them it is difficult to obtain their views,” Mr Alderdice said. At the last annual meeting of the union only 32 attended. The union has used television advertising and circulars to members to try to make this stop-work meeting successful. Mr Alderdice said he was hoping for about 1500 members to attend, out of about 3000 in the Christchurch city area.