Firms agree to higher pay—Mr Andersen

Press, 3 May 1984, Page 8

Firms agree to higher pay—Mr Andersen

PA Auckland At least three Auckland companies had agreed to give workers pay increases after union pressure, said the president of the Auckland Trades Council, Mr G. H. Andersen, yesterday. He said that all three deals were negotiated since the start of the union wage campaign. Mr Andersen also said that unions were negotiating with a fourth company and that a settlement was close.

Although Mr Andersen declined to name the companies involved or the precise details of the agreements, it is believed that in

one case workers will get an extra $32 a week.

In another deal a rise of 50c an hour in bonus payments has been negotiated while in the third the parties have come to an “arrangement” over payments for overtime.

In this case it is believed that the employer has agreed to send workers home early on Saturdays but pay them for a whole day.

The unions are reluctant to name the firms for fear that the Labour Department will want to investigate the agreements and possibly lay prosecutions.

The three companies are said to be small concerns employing relatively few workers. They apparently agreed to talk after approaches from individual unions.

One of the unions is thought to be the Northern Storepersons’ and Packers’ Union.

The president of the Auckland Employers’ Association, Mr William Jarvie, was unimpressed by Mr Andersen’s claims.

“He is always making those claims but he never puts names on the table so we are unable to verify them,” Mr Jarvie said. The director of the association, Mr Doug Stew-

art, said he did not know of any firms that had done the deals talked of by Mr Andersen. Meanwhile most of the 1000 employees at the N.Z. Steel mill at Glenbrook struck yesterday in support of the wage campaign. They are expected back at work today. Unions at the plant plan a series of rolling stoppages by individual groups of workers. That action is expected to start by early next week.