Rail union demands guidelines

Press, 30 August 1984, Page 1

Rail union demands guidelines

PA Wellington The National Union of Railwaymen said yesterday that it was astounded that the Minister of Transport, Mr Prebble, had referred the Picton rail-roster dispute back to the parties involved. The union said it believed the Minister should make decisions, based on the findings of the inquiry conducted by the man he appointed, Dr Martyn Finlay. Mr Prebble was reported on Tuesday as having referred the roster dispute back to. the parties, and having expressed confidence that they could reach a suitable solution using Dr Finlay’s report as a basis. Copies of the report were sent to the N.U.R., the Locomotive Engineers’ Association, the Railway Officers’ Institute, and the Railways Corporation.

“We have received the report, but it is now over to the parties as far as I know,” said the president of the N.U.R., Mr Gordon Finlayson, yesterday. “I find it very strange that the Minister should not make some decisions. It was a Ministerial inquiry. I don’t see that it is necessary for us to come into it again.” Mr Finlayson said that the union had been negotiating with the corporation at national level for months without success. The same deadlock could arise again

unless, at the very least, Mr Prebble instructed the parties oh what he was prepared to accept. “I am prepared to say there are areas in the Finlay report that we see should be negotiated, but we want some guidance from the Minister. “Here we have the Minister, having indicated there would be no redundancies until the Booz-Allen report is negotiated, and we have the corporation chairman saying ‘To hell with the Minister, this is what we are going to do.’ “I am not going to arrange any negotiations until we have some guidelines,” Mr Finlayson said.

Mr Prebble himself would say only that communication to the parties through the news media was not helpful. “I appreciate that you want my comment, but comments from me and the other parties help to sell newspapers — they don’t help solve the dispute,” he said.

The corporation’s general manager, Mr Gordon Purdy, confirmed that he had had an informal meeting yesterday morning with the N.U.R. general secretary, Mr Don Goodfellow, to discuss the situation.

Good progress had been made, Mr Purdy said, but he preferred to make no further comment.