Strike over unpaid leave

Press, 3 August 1983, Page 9

Strike over unpaid leave

About 40 workers at the Ravensdown fertiliser works at Hornby walked off the job yesterday when a row developed after a man had asked for unpaid leave of absence to care for his terminally ill wife.

Mr Tiny Kirk, an organiser for the Canterbury branch of the Meat Workers’ Union, which covers most workers at the plant, said that the man had asked for time off to care for his wife at home.

Mr Kirk said that the local management told him

that he could have only a fortnight and that anything more than that had to be approved by the company’s head office in Dunedin. He was told that the manager in Dunedin who could make the decision was not available yesterday. “The workers thought it was a shocking state of affairs that the local manager could not make a decision simply considering the humane aspect of it,” Mr Kirk said. “This man has enough mental anguish without worrying whether he is still going to have a job.

“Apparently it’s company policy that any unpaid leave of more than a fortnight must be approved by head office.”

When they heard of the matter the 30 workers in the Meat Workers’ Union and 10 in the Engineers’ Union decided yesterday afternoon to strike until tomorrow morning, when they will meet again to hear the head-office decision. In the meantime the man has begun his leave. The works manager, Mr C. H. Moir, said that the worker concerned had been advised earlier that applica-

tions for leave longer than two weeks needed to be put in writing, but on Monday the worker had told his supervisor that he wanted three months off from then.

Mr Moir said that when the rest of the workers went on strike a memo was already on its way south to head office with his own recommendation that the application be approved. The men had been told that it was probable that the leave would be granted. He could not understand why the men had decided to stay out until tomorrow.