Printers told to work full 40-hour week

Press, 28 October 1982, Page 6

Printers told to work full 40-hour week

Some Government 'Printing Office printers in Christchurch and Auckland have been resisting an attempt by the Government Printer, Mr P. D. Hasselberg. to bring their working hours back to eight a day from a customary 7 b 2-hour day.

The president of the Public Service Association. Mr D. H. Thorp, yesterday described the action by Mr Hasselberg in deducting pay from the printers who continued to work a 37 1 -2-hour week as “immoral." Several hundred staff at the Government Printing Office in Wellington will hold a stop-work meeting today to discuss the dispute. Mr Thorp

said he expected that they would support industrial action.

The printers' determination (award) provides for a 40-hour week, unlike that of clerical workers, who enjoy a 37 Iz z-hour week, but for many years printers in Auckland and Christchurch have been working a 37 L 2-hour week. Last month Mr Hasselberg ordered them to work the full 40-hour week. In Christchurch, it is believed that 11 printers obeyed the order to resume a 40-liour week, but that three stationery workers refused, and have subsequently had their pay cut. The Govern-

ment Printing Office has a printing and stationery shop in Peterborough Street. Mr Thorp said it was "immoral” of the Government Printer to increase the hours of work for low-paid workers during a pay freeze without any additional compensation and then reduce the pay because the workers continued to work the hours that had been worked for many years.

Mr Hasselberg said from Wellington yesterday that he was asking the workers in Christchurch to work similar hours to other employees in Wellington, in accordance with the determination.