Heathcote engineers’ row over authority

Press, 4 March 1983, Page 6

Heathcote engineers’ row over authority

A dispute over the reins of authority has led to the temporary suspension of Heathcote County's deputy electrical engineer.

Mr I. M. Boulton was suspended on full pay yesterday after a disagreement with his superior. Mr I. R. Densem.

The president Of the Local Bodies (other than Electrical) Workers’ Union, Mr D. Mace, said the dispute had been over the amount of authority given to Mr Boulton. The electrical engineer, Mr Densem, had semi-retired last year, and was working for the council on a parttime basis, he said. Mr Mace said the tw T o had had an argument over who should have authority in the council’s electrical engineering work. He said Mr Boulton discovered that there was a tape-recorder on his superior’s desk, which had recorded the argument.

The cassette was removed by Mr Boulton who, followed by Mr Densem, left the office. Mr Densem retrieved the cassette and, after a discussion behind closed doors with the County Clerk, suspended his deputy until the matter could be discussed on Monday.

“I see red on this one," said Mr Mace? “He is a member of our union and if there are any negotiations or any discussion to take up, it should be done through me.

The council has not even bothered to telephone me.”

Mr Mace said he would like to hear the council’s side of the matter before he made any decision or took any action.

“If Mr Boulton was suspended for misconduct, he should know why. They did not tell him that,” he said.

“I personally feel that if this sort of thing goes on and they do reinstate him, he has still got to go back to work and live with it.” Mr Mace said that Mr Boulton’s fellow workers who were also members of the Clerical Workers’ Union, had met to discuss the issue.

A typist in the county office had been asked by Mr Densem to listen to the recording of the argument and to transcribe it. She had refused. The office's Clerical Workers’ Union delegate, Mr M. Sinclair, confirmed that union members had held a meeting yesterday afternoon. “We passed a number of resolutions, one of them asking that Mr Boulton be reinstated,” he said.

Mr Sinclair said they were waiting to hear from the council before he would make any further comment.

Neither Mr Densem nor Mr Boulton would comment on the matter last evening. The council’s deputy chairman, Mr 0. T. Alpers, said that a special meeting of the

council had been called for Monday. He said the chairman. Mr W. M. Hindmarsh, was away, and they were waiting to get in touch with him before any further action was taken. “It seems to me to be an argument between a sector of senior employees of the council,” he said. He believed the dispute had been “going on for a while” but was not sure to what extent the chairman had been consulted.

The reason for the suspension, he said,, was to halt the dispute between the two employees until the council had had a. chance to discuss it. “I don’t think, it was a slur on Mr Boulton,” said Mr Alpers.

Mr Densem was the electrical engineer for the council “on a part-time basis” only, he said.