Chemical firm claims industrial sabotage

Press, 14 May 1987, Page 8

Chemical firm claims industrial sabotage

PA Auckland A chemical company claims it has been subjected to acts of industrial sabotage which could have resulted In extreme dangers, to people-, animals and plants. The chemicals division of Farmers Fertiliser at Otahuhu, South Auckland, made the claim at a hearing before the Arbitration Court in Auckland yesterday. The division’s manufacturing manager, Mr Ross Smith, said that in 1985-86 it lost almost $1.7 million of products and revenue and suffered an actual loss of $900,000. . Mr Smith said the loss had been a result of labour problems, thefts, wilful damage, and the sabotage of products. In some instances, Mr Smith said, the formulas for products were deliberately not followed, bags of raw materials had regularly been slashed, and tins, or containers of powder had been dented or defaced and had to be rejected. Machinery was stopped through acts of vandalism and documentation of toxic chemical formulas was lost, causing problems for the quality control laboratory.

Had the acts of sabotage not been detected, he said, “it could have been extremely dangerous, both physically to human beings and to animal health and plant life.” A delegate of the Northern Chemical Workers’ Union, Mr Gregory Woolridge, claimed he was unjustly and unfairly dis-

missed by the company on December 19 last year. Thecompany alleged - he was in unlawful possession of company property and had committed acts of wilful, damage and direct sabotage. Three fellow workers' were also dismissed and their cases would be heard by the Court later. Mr Woolridge, who was the senior formulator for the division, sought reinstatement He said that none of the

A OgUICH Him were true. In evidence, Mr Woolridge denied that when Mr Smith interviewed him on December 19 Mr Smith had said the police were not being involved in the allegations against him. Mr Woolridge said that he had asked Mr Smith to call the police “because he was accusing me of all these things,” but that Mr Smith had refused. Mr Smith had said, “Nd, you are dismissed.”