EMPLOYERS' REPLY

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 48, 25 February 1921, Page 7

EMPLOYERS' REPLY

CONSTITUTIONAL METHODS ;. FOLLOWED.

Mr. Bennett to-day forwarded the fol* lowing reply to Mr. Roberts: —"Dear sir,—l have to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 23rd instant, and note you state thai after exhaustive'inquiries have bjeen made by yourself and Mr. Glover you find that the 'go-slow policy has not been in operation in anyi port in the Dominion, that the workers have not been actingl, in concert in declining to work overtime, and that the provisions of the preference clause hava been adhered to by the Picton watersidei workers.

"In reply, I have to inform you that the employers regret that they are unablft to accept your statement, as they are quite satisfied that the complaints contained in my letters of the 10th and 16th instants are absolutely correct, and emphatically so in regard _to the men acting in concert in refusing to work overtime.

" Also, you are in error in stating that the employers have ignored ciause 45.

"At Auckland the matter of men refusing to work overtime was .brought before the local committee on the 7th instant, when the union's representatives, while denying the fact, maintained during discussion thnt it was not through any instruction issued by the executive of the union, but that it was due to tile members' individual action, over which the union had no control. "The same question was brought before the Wellington Dispute* Committee on the 10th hist, by myself, and at their request the meeting was adjourned to enable them to collect the information. Since that date I have heard' nothing 'from .your representatives ...until to-day,, when I received a request from tha secretary of the •'Wellington Union to ! convene a. meeting of the Local Disputes Committee to consider the position that has arisen.

"This is, I think, sufficient answer to your remark that in your opinion the trouble could have been amicably adjusted by following the constitutyrtal - methods as laid down by the agreement^

seeing that the employers have strictly complied with the procedure laid down iv clause 45, was much as they have tried at both Auckland and Wellington to have the matter dealt with by the Local Disputes Committee, the only result being that the unions at both ports :declined^ to accept . responsibility, of '■'d«a.ling%ith;the-dispute; . ..: ' "In consequence of the attitude adopted by the unions, the interests of the general public, apart altogether from those of the employers, are being seriously prejudiced, and it is urged upon ■your executive, therefore, that an imperative obligation is placed upon the latter to effect a remedy for the existing state of affairs.'—Yours faithfully (Singed) W. H. G. Bennett, Manager."