Govt ‘interference’ over engineers’ pay draws fire

Press, 28 March 1979, Page 3

Govt ‘interference’ over engineers’ pay draws fire

PA Wellington Government action over the marine engineers’ pay agreement would shatter any remaining confidence in free wage-bargaining in the trade-union movement, said the secretary of the Federation of Labour (Mr W. J. Knox) yesterday. He feared for the sanctity of Arbitration Court decisions on general wage order applications, he said. •‘Where are we going to end up? Where is the Government going to stop with its dictatorial interferes. 3 in the due processes of industrial practices?” An inquiry at the office of the Minister of Labour (Mr Bolger) late yesterday morning showed that the regulations to cancel the agreement were to be printed yesterday. afternoon. It would then require Ministerial signature before gazetting. Parties close to the maritime industry pay-relativity dispute expected the regulation to be gazetted yesterday. Mr Knox said he had also received that information. He said a Government regulation cancelling the negotiated agreement between the Institute of Marine and Power Engineers and the Railways Department could give it power to interfere in any industrial agreement negotiated between employers and trade unions in Conciliation Council. It would create a precedent which could damage the conciliation process, he said. “It means that if the Government does not like, or agree with, wage rates freely bargained by workers with their employers it can step in and destroy them.”

The Institute of Marine and Power Engineers yesterday accused ships’ deck officers, seamen, and cooks and stewards of “acting like petulant children.”

The institute said the Government’s demand on Monday that the engineers give up their pay agreement with the Railways Department was aimed at pacifying the members of the other maritime trade unions.

The institute’s vice-presi-dent (Mr M. Stewart) said that ship engineer officers considered the Government to be the greatest “shocker” in industrial history. “To ask us to give away the agreement is bad enough, but to threaten to force us by regulation questions the worth of any industrial agreement. The whole trade-union movement is watching with horror what is going,” said Mr Stewart. “We have no intention of withdrawing the agreement,” he said. “It was negotiated by the institute and the Railways Department, and the fact that the other three unions — the Merchant Service Guild, the Seamen’s Union, and the Cooks and Stewards’ Federation — should meddle with it puts them completely out of line.” Members of the other three unions were already being paid their increased rates, he said. Agreement for increased rates for engineer officers covered only those in the rail ferries, or 20 per cent of the institute’s membership.

No agreement had been negotiated for the engineers in the rest of the maritime industry. “The other three unions are jumping on the bandwagon before any agreement is finalised,” said Mr Stewart. “They are like petulant children, and they are holding up the ferries for no legitimate purpose. Now the Government is trying to pacify them by taking the ferries’ agreement away from us.” The institute would be “happy” to attend a Commission of Inquiry if that were set up by the Government. But it was essential that any inquiry should encompass the entire maritime industry and not be confined to the rail-ferry sector, he said. “We would want the inquiry to be open to the press so that the public could be informed of the rip-offs going on in the industry. “If a Commission of Inquiry is given power of decision, although that would be unlikely, we will abide by the decision. If it makes recommendations which show we are getting more than we are entitled to, we will accept the recommendations. But we will not give up on our railferry agreement. We are quite confident that our case will stand up before any inquiry,” Mr Stewart said.

Louise Adele Gilmour, aged 20 (above) disappeared from a surf carnival at New Brighton on Sunday, March 4.

She has not been seen since, and the police are now most concerned for her safety, according to Detective Sergeant T. J, Gorman, of the Christchurch C. 1.8. “We are treating the matter very seriously. She was with a girlfriend at the function, and there seems to be no reason why she might have wanted to leave,” said Detective Sergeant Gorman. The inquiry would be stepped up if Miss Gilmour was not found soon, he said. Miss Gilmour, who lives at 29 Lagan Street, Belfast, is 160 cm (sft 3in) in height, with brown eyes and brown hair. She was last seen wearing jandals, blue jeans, and an apricot-coloured top. The police yesterday appealed to anyone who might have information about her to get in touch w’ith Detective Sergeant Gorman, or the Papanui police station, immediately.