Shutdown reshuffle

Press, 27 November 1982, Page 6

Shutdown reshuffle

PA Whangarei The Marsden Point oil refinery maintenance shutdown programme has' been rearranged because of the walkoff by labourers’ riggers. A refinery spokesman, Mr Neville Milne, said the programme had been changed to allow work to continue that did not require rigging or cranes. Eight riggers walked off the job on Thursday because of a dispute over the employment of a rigger earlier this week. About 80 riggers employed on the nearby, refinery expansion site have struck in support of riggers at the refinery. Both groups have said they will return to work on Tuesday. An industrial conciliator, Mr John Button, went to Marsden Point yesterday, but no conciliation meeting was

held because there were no ■ union representatives at the refinery. He is expected to chair a- meeting about the dispute when the men return to work next week. Each side asserts that the other has breached the shutdown agreement, reached at the end of a four-week dispute last month, which delayed the start of the shutdown. Mr Milne said the dispute arose from the termination of a rigging contract. He said the contractor, Mr Whatmough Baldwin, of Auckland, was dismissed from the contract and was therefore not able to employ a small number of riggers and other men. The Labourers’ Union was wrongly asserting that the refining company had refused to employ one of these riggers on the site, he said. The. riggers’ walk-off

was a direct contravention of the continuity of work clause ,in the shutdown agreement. The clause states that “the essence of this agreement is that work shall not on any • account be impeded but shall always proceed as if no dispute had arisen. Any dispute concerning the application of this agreement shall be referred immediately to . the industrial mediator for adjudication.” < The union says the company breached the agree- * ment first by denying work, to a rigger on Monday. In a statement, JVII said it was disappointed that about 100 riggers and dogmen employed on the refinery expansion had also walked nff. It said therigger’s action would seri- „ ously affect progress and might lead to the suspension of other workers.