Unionist stopped from talking

Press, 28 August 1984, Page 18

Unionist stopped from talking

PA Auckland An Auckland employer has been fined for not allowing a union official to talk to workers. The Engineers’ Union claimed that while an official was in Benchmark Jewellery Company’s premises last December on union business, he found that no worker was a member of the union. It was agreed that he return in a fortnight to talk to them. Judge Finnigan, in a written decision of the Arbitration Court, said that although that meeting was later cancelled by the com-

pany, the workers would have been on holiday on that day, anyway. When the union official returned in January, he was told, in the presence of a policeman, that he would be arrested if he came back within six months. He returned 10 days later and the management ignored him until he went away. The judge agreed that the jewellers’ award provided for a union official to enter the workplace, and described the company’s attitude as “disruptive and un-co-operative.” He fined the company $2OO.