Inquiries on exemptions

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 9

Inquiries on exemptions

PA Wellington Workers liable for compulsory membership of unions have flooded the Labour Department with inquiries about exemption. The deputy registrar of the department’s union registration and rules section, Mr Bob Barrett, said the department had received “quite a few” inquiries about exemption. “They’ve been pouring in since Friday” Mr Barrett said, “but it’s mostly inquiries about applying for exemptions, and we won’t have any idea of the actual

numbers until the applications themselves come in.” The director of communications with the Employers Federation, Mr Alan Emerson, said the . price of industrial freedom in New Zealand had now become $lOO.

“This made a mockery of the Labour Government’s proposed Bill of Rights,” Mr Emerson said.

“Surely, if someone has conscientious and religious grounds for objection they should be able to do so on those grounds. “To turn round and say on application you’re $lOO

down the tube makes a mockery of freedom,” Mr Emerson said.

He said it represented a return to the judicial system of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

“If people did not have the money then they could not afford to defend themselves,” Mr Emerson said. If an application for exemption is granted the tribunal then issues a certificate which, unless revoked earlier, is held for life. According to a Labour Department pamphlet, the $lOO fee will be paid to the Consolidated Fund.