Oil refinery workforce of 2000 dismissed

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 1

Oil refinery workforce of 2000 dismissed

PA Whangarei The 2000-man workforce at the $1650 million Marsden Point oil refinery expansion site has been sacked.

Their employers, Marsden Refinery Constructors, said that repeated breaches of the site agreement, restricting progress on the refinery expansion, had forced them to take the action. The dismissal was effective from 4 p.m. yesterday and did not include the eight scaffolders working on the site who have been at the centre of the latest round of industrial strife on the dis-pute-plagued project. The industrial relations manager for M.R.C., Mr Ron Richards, said last evening that the 2000 workers directly employed by M.R.C. had been dismissed and the fate of the other 1000 workers was up to their employing sub-con-tractors. However, he said that at the time of the dismissals the sub-contract workers were still on strike. All work on the Marsden Point oil refinery maintenance shutdown came to a halt after the 750 workers on that job walked off yesterday morning. No official union comment was available but it was believed the workers were unhappy at the time being taken by the Wage Authority to decide on their claims for special award rates for the job. The shutdown, now into its third week, occurs every two years and during that time no oil is refined, stocks having been either imported or built up to cover the break.

The refinery workers will meet again on Monday. M.R.C., the consortium building the refinery expansion, said last evening that during the last two months the lack of industrial stability on the site had seriously affected the project. M.R.C.’s general manager, Mr David Beldotti, said the continual instability culminated last week in the futile strike over the eight scaffolders which the High Court had earlier this week ordered to be allowed back on site. The determination of the scaffolders, and their employer, Bob Duncan Scaffolding, to work on the project has in the last week led to progressive action by the workforce with all 3000 eventually walking off the job. Mr Beldotti said that the pointless strike had been particularly disheartening to M.R.C. as there had been a climate of stability on the site early this year. As a consequence the management of M.R.C. had concluded that it could not proceed with construction of the project until it could be assured of stable conditions. “We therefore reluctantly decided to dismiss the striking workforce,” he said. Continual disruption was not only adding millions of dollars to the project but was resulting in lost wages to the workforce. “Over the last three

months the workforce at the Marsden Point refinery expansion site has lost over $4 million in wages. In those three months over 340,000 man-hours were lost, more than half of these from direct industrial action,” said Mr Beldotti. He said M.R.C. believed that many employees were sick and tired of the amount of meetings, stoppages, and lost earnings. “We certainly are tired of it and cannot allow the disruptions to the project to continue," he said. No union spokesman would comment on the M.R.C. action last evening. A spokesman for the M.R.C. consortium said last evening that the Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, had been told in advance that the workers were to be dismissed. On his return to New Zealand yesterday, the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, said there had been industrial sabotage on the Marsden Point Refinery site “from the beginning.” The trouble was not caused by the Government, employers or contractors, he said. “I went up there last year and got a very pleasant reception from the chaps on the job,” said Sir Robert. “But they are being dragged out by some of the union bosses and it is industrial sabotage,” he said. High Court fine, page 3