Men on pay not allowed to work

Press, 9 August 1982, Page 1

Men on pay not allowed to work

PA Whangarei ■ Twelve welders are sitting in a Whangarei motel getting paid full-time for doing nothing.

The Auckland . Boilermakers' Union will not allow them a union ticket to work on the multi-million dollar Marsden Point refinery expansion job. Six of the welders have been idle since July 6 and the rest have since been hired by the JV2 construction consortium.

“These men have been hired but have been totally rejected by the union and have not started work,” said the JV2 industrial relations manager, Mr Ron Richards. “They have been told that if they do start work there might be trouble ” ‘ ’ Union officials say that they will not admit welders to their union before their unemployed members are hired on the job. The project, part of the Government’s “think big” plans, will cost about 31200 million. Delays will cost New Zealand 313 million a month, according to the Minister of Energy- (Mr Birch). Mr Richards said that 37 boilermakers were now working on site. Some .300 would be needed, and fewer than 100 were available in New Zealand. The Federation of Labour

had declined a consortium request for 50 from Australia, said Mr Richards. The F.O.L. had yet to respond to a further urgent request for another 50 from . Britain.

The secretary of the Auckland Boilermakers’ Union, Mr Alec Maclean, said that the consortium had blacklisted some of his members.

This was contrary to the Human Rights Act, he said. However, Mr Richards said that the union’s refusal to admit the 12 welders was contrary to the unqualified preference clause in the Industrial Relations Act. He said that the consortium had turned down a “very small” number of boilermakers who had. applied. These were regarded by the consortium as "unsuitable having regard to their skills and past employment record.”

The president of the F.0.L., Mr W. J. Knox, asserted on Saturday that the consortium was: victimising some groups of workers. "The company does not want boilermakers who worked on the Bank of New Zealand job in Wellington,” Mr Knox said. The Minister of Labour (Mr Bolger) said in an interview on Saturday that he could believe some people had. been turned down for jobs.' • 1 . c