Workers strike in hours dispute

Press, 9 February 1983, Page 6

Workers strike in hours dispute

Staff of the Christchurch Drainage Board at the Bromley treatment station and the Hazeldean Road depot went on strike yesterday afternoon in support of claims by staff of the depot’s flushers section for an earlier starting time.

The half-day stoppage by about 25 people from each of the two sites followed a similar half-day stoppage by them on Monday. The 25 flushing staff were given suspension notices on Monday morning. The flushers want to start work at 7.30 a.m. each day instead of 8 a.m. so that they can finish half an hour earlier, and hence have more daylight at the day’s end. The chief engineer of the board, Mr H. P. Hunt, has said that the board has not consented to the change because it wants to maintain "an efficient and acceptable level of service” to the ratepaying public. It is concerned that the hours proposal would detract from that, increase safety risks, and affect co-ordination with other sections of the board's staff.

The flushers were suspended on Monday when they refused to do flushing duties between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.

They had decided on this stand, using the board’s argument about a safety risk involved working near sewer manholes while traffic is busy. The secretary of the Canterbury branch of the Labourers’ Union, Mr R. A. Lowe, said that the suspension notices were given to the workers under section 120 A of the Industrial Relations Act. They had offered to do vehicle maintenance, but this had been refused. When they had returned to work at 9 a.m., the Hazeldean Road depot was locked, he said.

Asked why the flushing workers wanted to change their work hours, Mr Lowe said that reasons varied from worker to worker. Many wanted to spend an extra half-hour in the afternoon with their families, or to do shopping or business from time to time. It was also considered to be easier to travel to work

and back in the proposed hours, Mr Lowe said. The workers did not believe that the board’s reasons for refusing the change of hours was justified. The workers had sought the change over the last two or three years but had got nowhere, and so had decided to take stronger action. The union had asked for a trial of three months so that the effects of the change could be assessed, but this had been refused, said Mr Lowe.

He said that 97 per cent of the flushers wanted the change in hours. Ninety per cent of labourers and drivers employed by the board now started work at 7.30 a.m.

Mr Hunt said yesterday that the board had proposed that a meeting be held before an independent third party such as a conciliator, to try,to settle the dispute promptly and fairly, but this had been rejected by both

the Labourers’ Union and the Drivers’ Union.

A meeting of all the board's labourers and drivers will be held on Friday morning to discuss the dispute.