Meat union awaits legal action
No prosecution has been brought against the Meat Workers’ Union more than 2% months after complaints were first made to the Labour Department by freezing companies. Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating, Ltd, complained to the department at the beginning of May, when meat workers began a series of rolling a ages to try to induce Dyers to agree to a joint approach to the Government for an exemption from the wage freeze. Other complaints were made by Borthwicks C.W.S., and W. and R. Fletcher, Ltd.
The companies alleged that the Meat Workers’ Union had not given three days notice of industrial action and was therefore in breach of section 125 a of the Industrial Relations Act. The secretary of the
union, Mr A. J. Kennedy, said yesterday that he had been advised that neither Borthwicks nor Fletchers were proceeding with their complaints. He had not heard anything about the other complaints, by Waitaki.
The Secretary of Labour, Mr Gavin Jackson, announced on May 30 that the department would prosecute and was sending details of the alleged breaches to district Crown law offices.
A spokesman for the Crown Law Office in Wellington said yesterday that the office was an adviser to the Crown and was not in a position to comment on the prosecutions.
Mr Jackson said from Wellington that the first “round” of prosecutions were still with the district Crown solicitors as far as he knew. They had been asked to act for the department and initiate proceedings.
Waitaki’s assistant general manager, Mr J. M. Ryan, said that the matter had left the company’s hands when it complained to the Labour Department. It was the department’s decision, as custodian of the act, to decide whether to proceed with the complaints. The company had merely advised it of the alleged transgressions of the act.
Section 125 A of the act provides for fines of up to $3OO for workers found guilty of a breach, $l5OO for officers, and $3OOO for a union. The prosecutions will be heard in District Courts.
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Press, 12 July 1984, Page 1
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342Meat union awaits legal action Press, 12 July 1984, Page 1
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