Newspaper printers’ award settled at 4.5%

Press, 23 November 1988, Page 8

Newspaper printers’ award settled at 4.5%

Newspaper employers and printers settled on a 4.5 per cent wage increase last evening, after two days of talks in Christchurch. The settlement figure was the mid-point between the parties when yesterday’s talks began. The Labour Department mediator, Mr Gerry Ditchfield, said the printers also got agreement that their sick leave could accumulate up to 150 days instead of the present 120 days. The present list of nonpublication days was retained by the union, he said.

“A. working party is to meet during the currency

of the award to discuss a wide range of industry matters impinging on technology and related issues,” he said. The parties also agreed to remove some provisions in the award relating to hot-metal newspaper production, which had now been overtaken by the use of computers. The latest round of talks on the printers’ award began at 9 a.m. on Monday, and finally collapsed at 1 a.m. yesterday, with the Newspaper Publishers’ Association offering a 4 per cent wage increase and the Printing and Related Trades Union seeking 5 per cent. Mr Ditchfield got the

talks restarted early yesterday, with the groups of negotiators in separate buildings — the printers were in the Mediation Service offices while the employers were in the nearby Parkroyal Hotel. By the afternoon there had been some progress, he said. The parties were in the same building, though they were still in separate rooms and he was moving between the groups to continue the negotiations.

, The two sides met face-to-face only after the agreement was reached. The extra day of talks yesterday has delayed the resumption of talks for the commercial printers

award. The journalists and photo - lithographers’ awards remain unsettled, and some rolling stoppages in the newspaper industry have continued this week. Workers at the “Wairarapa Times Age” walked off the job yesterday; others at the “Otago Daily Times” returned to work after a 24-hour strike. The Northern Journalists’ Union will resume talks with the N.P.A. in Auckland today. The outcome would dictate any further industrial action, said the New Zealand Journalists’ Union president, Ms Susan Goodson.