Jobs ‘to N.Z. first’

Press, 20 April 1982, Page 6

Jobs ‘to N.Z. first’

No overseas tradesmen would be allowed to work on the Marsden Point oil refinery extension project until the Federation of Labour was sure that all steps had been taken to recruit New Zealand workers, said the S resident of the F.O.L. (Mr I. J. Knox) yesterday. Mr Knox was commenting from Wellington on a report in “The Press” yesterday from London which said that tradesmen were being recruited through advertisements in Britain. Among those being sought were

boilermakers, carpenters, and scaffolders. A delegation of Christchurch scaffolders told “The Press” they were angry that overseas labour was being sought when no attempt had been made to recruit locally first. The delegation said that it had sought information from the Christchurch office of the Labour Department about the jobs but had been told that the department knew nothing about any vacancies. Mr Knox said that under the first interim composite agreement with the contrac-

tors no labour was to be brought into New Zealand unless the F.O.L. had agreed. Mr Knox said that the F.O.L. would not agree to the importing of labour unless it was sure that job opportunities were given to New Zealanders first.-. Efforts should also be made to train unemployed New Zealanders for the work. Mr Knox will negotiate a renewed composite agreement for the site later this week. He said that the project could employ up to 2000 workers at peak.