Ferries to sail as usual

Press, 29 January 1982, Page 2

Ferries to sail as usual

PA Wellington t The Cook Strait • ferries t will run normally next week' after agreement yesterday to s handle a dispute involving v the ferry officers’ travel expenses under new industrial t legislation. | t The Minister: of Labour i (Mr Bolger) who attended a t meeting which lasted nearly 1 three hours with Merchant i Service Guild ' representa- j tives, said that the guild had r agreed with him to handle } the dispute under the Indus- ; trial Law Reform Act, which ; was passed by Parliament last year. * ( An industrial mediator ; would be asked to report < within a week on the dispute, ] which would then probably 1

be referred to the Arbitration Court/. The officers were to have stopped work on Monday but will not now do so. The guild’s assistant secretary, Mr John McLeod, said that the outcome of the meeting was “very satisfactory.” The gyild’s aim had been to have the dispute aired before the Court and giving the statutory 14 days notice of a stoppage had been the only way that the guild had felt this could be achieved. The officers seek the same out-of-port travel expenses as seamen and cooks and stewards on .j the ferries. Negotiations oln the matter have gone on for some years.