W. J. Scott crew refuse jobs planting trees

Press, 28 June 1983, Page 2

W. J. Scott crew refuse jobs planting trees

Nelson reporter The crew of the fisheries management research vessel W. J. Scott, who are acknowledged by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to have specialist fishing skills, have been offered jobs planting and pruning trees, and doing road maintenance. The W. J. Scott has been tied up at Port Nelson under a black ban imposed first by the Public Service Association and then supported by the Seamen’s Union. The ban was put on the ship after the crew had been paid off and the vessel decommissioned. The high cost of bringing her up to 20-year survey standard was said by the Ministry to be the reason for decommissioning the vessel. Mr John Schwass, a spokesman for the crew, said yesterday that another meeting was to be held in Wellington tomorrow with representatives of the State Services Commission. “We have already rejected their offer of jobs for the crew which are outside the industry,” said Mr Schwass. Two jobs had been offered with the Forest Service, tree-planting and pruning, and another two as road maintenance workers. “What they are talking about are labouring jobs, for men under 40, and that rules us out. There are another two offered with the Ministry of Works at Murchison and Blenheim

and some of them are not guaranteed to be permanent,” he said. When the director of the Ministry’s Fisheries Management Division, Mr Brian Cunningham, was in Nelson last month he praised the crew and specifically mentioned their specialised fishing skills. The crew had also been offered redundancy payments of 8 per cent of their pay for the last 12 months and 4 per cent up to 19 years. “The amount any one of us would get would be $13,000, and that is before tax,” said Mr Schwass. Tax, according to the Inland Revenue Department, would be about $2OO provided that the redundancy money was less than onethird of the average wage for the last three years up to the time of redundancy. “They told us we could have first choice of jobs in the James Cook and the Tararoa, but if we do, we have got to pay the redundancy money back. We would not agree with that one,” he said. None of the men had yet sought an unemployment benefit. They were still on paid leave and would remain so until about the middle of next month, Mr Schwass said. A meeting between representatives of the P.S.A. and the S.S.C. has been set down for today. The P.S.A. also want to meet the Minister, Mr Maclntyre.