Unionism law policing ‘up to those affected’

Press, 28 January 1984, Page 4

Unionism law policing ‘up to those affected’

PA Wellington The responsibility for policing the law on voluntary unionism lay with those people affected by it, the Mi- : ster of Labour, Mr Bolger, has said. The Industrial Law Reform Act was drafted to put the policing in the hands of those it affected, he said. “It was not designed that the Labour Department would become the watchdog or the policeman for the legislation,” he

said. The law, which applies from February 1, prohibits closed shops—arrangements under which the hiring of non-union labour is banned—and any force being used on workers to join a union. In spite of this, the 16 unions at N.Z. Forest Products, Kinleith mill told their employer on Wednesday that they would not work with non-union labour under the new law. Asked for his reaction to

that, Mr Bolger said nothing he had heard about Kinleith was different from what had already been said on some of the large, heavily unionised industrial sites. “The law, however, makes it quite clear that if an individual or employer or trade union seeks to impose their will on another on the question of union membership, they are probably in breach of the law and the party so affected has a range of remedies,” Mr Bolger said.