Refinery firm fined $5000

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 3

Refinery firm fined $5000

PA Auckland Marsden Point Refinery Constructors were yesterday fined $5OOO for contempt of the High Court and ordered to pay $4OOO costs to seven scaffolders. Mr Justice Hillyer ruled that the consortium of companies were in breach of an undertaking, given in the High Court in April, to allow the seven scaffolders on to the project site. The undertaking was given at a hearing in which the seven scaffolders won an interim injunction forbidding the Labourers' Union to refuse to work with the men. His Honour said yesterday that when he granted the interim injunction it was a means of holding the situation until the real dispute between the parties could be settled. He would have expected the parties to have arranged an urgent hearing for the matter to be settled. When industrial trouble continued at the site the employers "went back on their undertaking” and refused to allow the seven scaffolders on to the site. He was also concerned that a spokesman for the employers' consortium had misrepresented the situation on television's “Eye Witness” programme when he said that “the Court has ruled we must bring the men back.” “I do not think it does any good for industrial harmony for the employers to be making statements to the media which misrepresent the situation.” His Honour said that he hoped full information about yesterday’s hearing would be given to union members.