STATEMENT BY MINE WORKERS’ SECRETARY

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 153, 25 March 1938, Page 13

STATEMENT BY MINE WORKERS’ SECRETARY

Contention That Manager Broke Agreement By Telegraph—Press Association. Greymouth, March 24. Interviewed concerning the dispute over the non-payment of double-shift rates at the Renown mine, in the Huntly area, Mr. A. McLagan, secretary of the United Mine Workers, made the following statement:— ' “Payment of an additional tonnage rate for double shift places has. been made for the last 18 years, and during the whole of that time it has been customary to pay double shift rate inthe circumstances in which the manager of the Renown mine is refusing payment. The definition of a double shift place is a place in which „ one pair qf men succeeds another pair in the same working face. The agreement further provides fhat if any member of a double shift party absents himself from work without providing a substitute approved by the management, the management have the right to appoint a substitute during his absence. The agreement, nowhere gives the manager the right, in the event of no substitute -being provided or appointed, to discontinue payment of 2d. per ton. : The extra payment is provided for double shift places and a place continues to be double shift even although one or more of the men ordinarily employed therein is temporarily off work through sickness or injury. That is the accepted interpretation of the double shift clause, and has never been disputed until now. It is quite correct to say the disputes committee clause of the miners’ agreement provides, that, pending a settlement of any dispute, work shall be carried on in all respects as before the dispute arose. ■That clause implies, although like the double shift clause it does not state its meaning in' sb many words, that payment for the work done shall be continued as before the dispute. “In this case the manager of the Renown mine is trying to introduce new and lower payment for certain work. He is quite entitled to his opinion of the meaning of the double shift clause or any other clause but not entitled to reduce the customary payment unless and until the matter has been argued before the disputes committee and a decision given by the committee. By arbitrarily stopping payment of the double shift rate the manager of the Renown 1 mine has broken the agreement and is primarily responsible for the stoppage of work. I have advised the miners to resume work pending consideration of the dispute by the disputes committee, and I repeat the advice, not because I consider the miners in the wrong but I believe they should not so respond to provocation from employers. 2k breach of agreement by an employer may explain but does not necessarily justify, a consequential breach by employees. The employer is the originator of the dispute in this instance. He has not a shadow of right to reduce the customary payment unless and until his contention is upheld by the disputes committee. Like the employees, he is bound to carry on in all respects as before the dispute arose. If he can arbitrarily anticipate getting a decision of the disputes committee in his favour, , and especially when his case is the es-

sence of weakness, what is the disputes committee clause worth? “If the Waikato mine-owners are sincerely desirous of bringing about a resumption ; if they are not- trying _to provoke a stoppage or to work a point on the agreement, they will tell the Renown manager to continue the customary payment until the dispute is decided by the disputes committee. I make that proposal as a basis for settlement, that the Renown Company continue the customary payment meantime and the miners immediately resume work and both parties refer the dispute to the disputes committee."

MR. BISHOP’S REPLY

“No Dealings Until Men Return” “The next move for a settlement must come from the miners,” said Mr. Bishop, when the miners’ attitude was referred to him in Wellington last night. “We refuse to deal with the men until they do return,” he added. “The agreement between the parties stipulates that if there is a dispute work shall go on. If the men desire to return it will be a step in the right direction.”