Caltex storemen still out

Press, 31 October 1981, Page 2

Caltex storemen still out

Caltex oil storemen at the Lyttelton and Blenheim Road depots were off work again yesterday, saying they had been locked out, though the Oil Industry Union of Employers still maintains they are on strike.

The Industry Union Employers’ executive officer, Mr S. Marshall, said that a union official had formally advised the company on Tuesday the storemen were still asking for pay increases and that the work restriction of one day off a week was still in force.

Mr Marshall said,that a decision of the Arbitration Court in the case of the Northern Drivers’ Union v. Mobil Oil, Ltd, last year made it clear that if workers put a condition on their employment they could be deemed to be on strike.

He said that the company was not prepared to have workers reporting for duty but telling the company that they would work only four days out of five. The employers’ union has given the oil storemen until Monday to return to. normal work. If they do not, the employers will not nominate assessors for the oil storemen’s award, which is set down for conciliation in Christchurch on November 19. Mr Marshall said that the employers would, however, attend conciliation talks for oil tanker drivers on Tuesday.

The storemen went on strike from October 5 to 9 and from October 16 apd 23 in support of a claim for a productivity agreement involving a pay margin, but Mr Marshall said that to try to get a pay increase only two weeks before formal conciliation was in direct contravention of the spirit of conciliation.