I.L.O. will hear N.Z. complaint in October

Press, 4 July 1985, Page 13

I.L.O. will hear N.Z. complaint in October

PA Wellington The formal complaint by the Employers’ Federation to the International Labour Organisation over compulsory unionism will be heard in October and November. The federation’s executive director, Mr Jim Rowe, who returned from the LL.O.’s annual conference in Geneva at the week-end, said the 1.L.0.’s freedom of association committee would consider the complaint on October 31 and November 1. The constitution of the 1.L.0. asserted that freedom of association was a fundamental principle on which the 1.L.0. was based, Mr Rowe said. In Geneva he discussed the question with the chair-

man of the 1.L.0.’s governing body, Mr Jean-Jacques Oechslin. “He is a lawyer and he thought it was a very interesting case. He obviously was not in a position to comment on what the outcome might be,” Mr Rowe said. A spokesman for the Minister of Labour, Mr Rodger, said yesterday that the Government had not yet officially commented to the 1.L.0. on the complaint. A complaint is followed by a request to the Government concerned for its comments. Because of 1.L.0. rules Mr Rowe, who is an employer representative on the freedom of association committee, will not participate in

the debate on the issue. The Opposition spokesman on labour, Mr George Gair, and Mr G. E. Lee (Nat., Hauraki) have criticised the Government’s decision to set a fee of $lOO for applications for union membership exemption. They moved notices of motion in Parliament yesterday opposing the measure. Mr Gair said the $lOO fee was an unwarranted, excessive, offensive, and unjust tax on individuals seeking relief from a repressive law. “It is designed to dragoon the workers of this country into compulsory union membership in a manner unparalleled this side of the Iron Curtain,” Mr Gair said.