Rigger hearing opens in Arbitration Court

Press, 15 December 1982, Page 6

Rigger hearing opens in Arbitration Court

PA Aucklanc A trade unionist said in the Arbitration Court yesterday that a rigger. John Doran, had applied for a job at the Marsden Point refinery expansion site earlier in the year but was told that a form for a job as foreman would be sent back to him. The comment was made by the secretary of the Northern Labourers' Union. Mr L. T. Smith, in evidence he gave at a hearing in Auckland. Mr Doran, who was at the court, was at the centre of the industrial crisis last week when he was refused entry previously to the refinery. Mr Doran and one other rigger have now been refused employment at the nearby refinery extensions construction site because of their past industrial activities. The consortium, which is building the extensions, has applied to the Court for approval to recruit 18 to 21 overseas riggers a month for eight months from mid-Janu-ary. The union wants all competent New Zealand riggers to be taken on first. At the hearing it accused the consortium of using a blacklist against some workers. The hearing, which will ontinue today, opened before

Chief Judge Horn and Messrs J. A. Boomer and P. L. Oldham. Mr E. W. Thomas. Q.C.. and Mr W. M. Patterson, appear for the consortium. Appearing on behalf of the Northern Labourers' Union and the Federation of Labour are the F.O.L.'s president. Mr W. J. Knox, and Ms Wendy Davis. In his opening address. Mr Thomas said the need for overseas riggers was urgent. The cost of the delay in terms of today's currency was estimated at more than $2O million a month. He said that by July or August the consortium would have a peak rigger requirement of about 350 men. Allowance, he said, had been made for all riggers who would become available in New Zealand, which would give the consortium about 180 New Zealanders. He said that in the case of Mr Doran and the second rigger, the consortium considered it had sufficient knowledge of their past industrial activities to say that they represented a real and certain risk which it should not be obliged to undertake. He said the consortium therefore emphatically denied the charge of victimisation which had been levelled against it. However. Mr Thomas said

he had decided not to establish that the decision not to employ the men was justified.

In her address. Ms Davis said it was clear that the consortium, in conjunction with the New Zealand Refining Company, was using a blacklist against some riggers. The consortium had flatly refused to discuss the merits of its position on the two workers. As a result, the attitude of riggers on the site had hardened.

Labour accepted, page 2