Meat industry unions allow some shift work

Press, 2 December 1985, Page 17

Meat industry unions allow some shift work

PA Nelson Meat industry unions had made a big breakthrough by allowing shift work in further processing, says Mr Athol Hutton, managing director of Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating, Ltd. The unions had agreed at conciliation talks to the introduction of shift work, said Mr Hutton after a meat industry field day in Nelson. “We have never had the national union involved in a shift work agreement before. Now they have agreed to one,” he said. “We had shift work at Burnside last season and now we are able to introduce it to one other plant with the general agreement of the national union.” Although it applies only to further-proc**®’"" —'

to further-processing areas and not the slaughterboard, Mr Hutton said it was a big breakthrough which would have long-term implications for the industry. Freezing companies would not have to invest big amounts of capital in further processing plants. "Instead of working them eight hours a day, we will work them for 16,” he said. “It will have the over-all effect of reducing the cost of processing because we will get better use of plant.” Mr Hutton said he hoped

shift work could be put into practice in some of Waitaki’s other plants. In his address at the field day earlier, Mr Hutton outlined Waitaki’s part in a lamb-cutting plant in Liverpool costing £1.3 million (about $3 million). Half the cost of that plant was put up by the British Government and a quarter by the Liverpool city authorities who were concerned about high unemployment. “They can cut a New Zealand frozen lamb for half the price that we can cut it here,” he said. “We have got to make use of that even if our unions don’t like it so that we can bring more dollars back to the New Zealand farmer.”