Islington dispute delays season

Press, 9 October 1979, Page 2

Islington dispute delays season

iThe start of the 1979-1980' meat export season at the. Islington works of Waitaki- • N.Z. Refrigerating, Ltd, has been postponed a week because of a dispute involving Maintenance work ‘The dispute is a national one. and has already caused' industrial disruption at j Auckland and Southland. It! about payments to outside ; tradesmen who are brought' in by freezing companies to, dp occasional jobs. •The unions argue that if tlje freezing companies ] engage outside labour for! maintenance work. they; should pay the men the I higher rate paid to trades-; men on the companies’ own] payrolls. W a i t a k i-N'.Z. Refrig-I erating argues that it is itsl own business what it pays; outside tradesmen. Last week the comnanv] Issued suspension notices to; six electrical tradesmen em-, ployed at Islington when ] they refused to handle a job; the Engineers’ Union hadi declared "black.’’ The work! was on a switchboard! installed by an outside con-1 tractor. The notices were lifted before being implemented i when the union asked the; company to discuss the mat- ■

liter The talks were held ; yesterday and will continue; •on Thursday. > The secretary of the ■Canterbury branch of the ; union (Mr R. J. Todd) said that the outside tradesmen I who installed the switch--1! board were not paid the (higher rate. This was the 'reason for jobs being Ideclared "black.” The works tradesmen also voted to • i strike if the six tradesmen were suspended. The senior industrial rela-, , jtions officer for Waitaki • !N.Z. Refrigerating (Mr M. • ! Willyams) said that the .; company was not a party to I the memorandum of the nati; ional agreement on freezing works’ tradesmen. J The memorandum, inserted jin the agreement last Deli cember, gives a guide to payment to outside contractors’ working in freezing I works. 'I The Federation of Labour land the Freezing Companies’ 1 ; Association have worked out >;a formula to amend the II memorandum, because of difficulties in interpreting it. I i But Mr Willyams said that 'Waitaki would not agree to the new formula. The formula, signed yesterday, provides for any d dispute over payment to 'outside contractors’ staff to

I be referred to an arbitrator. The executive director of the Freezing Companies’ : Association (Mr P. D. ; Blomfield) said yesterday that the naming of the arbii trator had been referred to] the Government. • He said that he expected • the F.O.L. would ask its ’ affiliated unions to ensure ; that norma] work was being i carried out so that any problems could be referred to the arbitrator. Mr Willyams described the new formula as “one for continuing diputes. It solves 1 nothing,” he said. He said that most com-i panies had “reluctantly ” I ' gone along with it, while] others were “sitting on the; fence” waiting to see the! outcome. I Mr Willyams said the company was prepared to negotiate on a reasonable ■ basis. Mr Willvams said that : Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating disagreed with the concept ■of classifying work into "capital work” and “maintenance work.” During the i winter or off-season months, when considerable work was I done by outside contractors, conditions were different from those in the slaughtering season, he said.