Men at refinery will not be sued

Press, 30 August 1984, Page 1

Men at refinery will not be sued

PA Whangarei Workers who attended last Friday’s unauthorised stop-work meeting at the Marsden Point oil refinery expansion project will not face legal action, said their employers yesterday But the company building the project still intends prosecuting the meeting organisers. Earlier this week the company, Marsden Refinery Constructors, said that it was considering taking action against the 730 workers who attended. They could have been liable to fines of up to $3OO. In a letter yesterday to all M.R.C. employees and subcontractors’ workers on the site, the M.R.C. project construction manager, Mr Jack Hardie, said, “Although written warnings have been given to all those who attended last Friday’s stop-work meeting, in this instance no legal action will be taken in regard to them. “I have to advise however that legal action is being taken against those who incited, instigated, aided, or abetted a breach of the provisions of the Whangarei Refinery Project Disputes Act, 1984.” M.R.C. has already said this week that it would take legal action against the chairman of the unions’ site committee, Mr Nelson Kelly, an engineer, and an M.R.C. riggers’ delegate, Mr Danny Bradley, who it sacked for being the “primary instigator” of the stopwork meeting. It also said it would take legal action against other “instigators.” They could be liable to fines of up to $3OOO. Unions announced on Tuesday that they had given notice of the intention to stop-work. However, M.R.C. said yesterday that no formal notice had been given. An M.R.C. spokesman said the Marsden Point Refinery Expansion Project Disputes Act did not define whether the site delegates’ committee or individual unions were required to give notice of a stop-work. “However, as yet, we have received no notice of any sort from any source,” he said. The secretary of the Electrical and Electronic Workers’ Union, Mr Tony Neary, said that he would be at Marsden Point next week at the request of site electricians. He said he had talked to his union delegates at Marsden Point last Friday and advised them to stay on the job. The Whangarei police may soon lay charges in relation to the alleged attack on a Duncan Scaffolding, Ltd, van as it drove past a picket line outside the Marsen Point oil refinery expansion site on May 30. The acting Northland district police commander, Chief Inspector Don McConnell, said that names of persons suspected of causing the damage had been given to the police.