‘Unions dated methods added to site problems’

Press, 31 May 1985, Page 19

‘Unions dated methods added to site problems’

Auckland The failure of unions to update their methods to cope with “think big” projects had contributed partly to industrial problems on the Marsden Point refinery expansion site, counsel for the company overseeing the project, has said. Counsel for the New Zealand Refining Company, Mr Alan Galbraith, told the inquiry into industrial relations at Marsden Point that

the unions had offered no evidence of updating their staffing, education, or communication methods to cope with the demands of the nation’s biggest construction site. Mr Galbraith said that the site delegates had, by

default, become involved in a wider field of activity, including spheres which should have been the responsibility of the unions. The unions had not provided their delegates with sufficient guidance in these areas, he said.

Mr Galbraith also said that the Federation of Labour had not played a sufficient role in industrial relations on the expansion site, restricting itself to initial expressions of commitment and then participating mainly in the negotiation of the two collective agreements.

Disputes over dismissed workers and delegates had remained unresolved for so long because the unions had

failed to use the available disputes procedures to end them, he said. "In so doing the unions have penalised the individual workers they are supposed to represent.” Mr Galbraith said the unions must rethink the roles of site delegates on

such large projects. He asked the committee, Dr Martyn Finlay, Q.C., to reject the unions’ calls for recognition of the delegates site committee at Marsden Point, because the new body claimed rights but no obligations in its relationship with the employer. Mr Galbraith said the inquiry had no jurisdiction under its terms of reference for complying with the unions' request to recom-

mend either the repeal of the Whangarei Refinery Expansion Project Disputes Act or legislation effectively creating another collective agreement for the expansion site. He urged the inquiry to show caution in making any recommendations which impinged upon the legal relationships between all the employer and worker groups and also the contractual arrangements between the refining company and the Marsden Refinery Constructors Consortium. The project was costing $1.6 billion, with a complex arrangement of overseas loans, Government support, letters and legal contracts, he said. “The rules of this game cannot be changed,” said Mr Galbraith. “Those rules must be observed.” Every day of lost production cost about $1 million, he said. Thus there was no room to experiment with changes to legal arrangements at the Marsden Point expansion site. Mr Galbraith said that although the Disputes Act might be imperfect or unde-

sirable it was the only identifiable factor which had produced a long period of industrial stability and higher productivity on the expansion site.