Dustmen consider council’s offer

Press, 1 November 1984, Page 4

Dustmen consider council’s offer

Christchurch rubbish collectors will decide whether to accept the City Council’s refreshment and over-time provisions at a stop-work meeting early tomorrow morning. Representatives of the Canterbury Labourers’ Union and the City Council discussed yesterday the provision of cold drinks on the job and the collectors’ eligibility for over-time payments. The 23 rubbish collectors

employed by the council stopped work last Friday in protest against the council’s failure to provide them with cold drinks on the job. The collectors resumed work at the normal time on Monday. The council’s deputy general manager, Mr Harold Surtees, said that it had agreed to make bulk cordial available. Coffee and tea were already provided at the yard and in vacuum flasks.

The council would consider the over-time issue when the award was renegotiated early next year, he said. It was now up to the rubbish collectors to decide whether to accept the proposals at tomorrow’s meeting, he said. The union’s secretary,. Mr R. A. Lowe, said he would make no comment on the outcome of yesterday’s talks until the workers had been told.