Clerical head derides stand of employers

Press, 31 January 1989, Page 7

Clerical head derides stand of employers

By

SARONA IOSEFA

The Canterbury Employers’ Association was either trying to have a “bob each way” on the clerical workers’ award or was being ruled by “big brother” and accepting it, said the national secretary of the Clerical Workers’ Union, Mr John Slater, yesterday. After a meeting before Christmas about the award, Canterbury employers had indicated they would settle. But this was followed by another statement that they would follow the decision of Auckland employers. “It absolutely amazes me that Canterbury employers would allow themselves to be pushed around in such a way, but it appears to be a fact,” Mr Slater said. During his visit last

week to Christchurch, employers contacted him with various offers to exempt them from the national stoppage on February 2, 3 and 7, he said. The message to them was, “You made a decision to follow big brother and you’re reaping the result.” The only means Canterbury employers had of averting a strike was to hold an urgent meeting of their association before Thursday to reverse the resolution, vote to settle the award on the chief mediator’s compromise, vote to reverse the rule that one employer negotiator could veto the change of a settlement, and insist on majority decisions, or insist the employers’ negotiators meet this week with the union to settle the award.