APPEALS UPHELD

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 51, 1 March 1934, Page 18

APPEALS UPHELD

TRAMWAY STRIKE SEQUEL

(By l'elegrapb.— Press Association.) CHKISTCHUBCH, February 28. The Tramway Appeal Board gave judgment tonight in the twenty-three appeals by members of the traffic stafi of the Christchurch tramways against reductions in grading and pay. All the appeals were upheld, with costs against the Tramway Board. The appeals were made against the decision of the recently-elected board, on which there is an overwhelming majority of \Labour members. When the tram strike! occurred in May, 1932, the trams were manned in part by nonunion labour with a proportion of members of the union who refused to go on ■strike. When the strike settlement was reached by arbitration, the arbitrator, Mr. A. T. Donnelly, barrister, directed that in fulfilment of. the promise made byvthe board to the volunteers who helped to keep the service "running that they would be permanently retained if suitable, that a pro-' portion of these men be retained and ! that other vacancies be filled by the reemployment of union men. Because of the strike, some union men were reengaged at a lower grading and pay, and some volunteers and some nonstrikers were given higher grading than they otherwise would have achieved.

The ne^v board-directed the manager to regrade the staff according to seni--ority, disregarding the strike and not counting that period as a break in service. The result of this regrading was that appellants were reduced in seniority and grading.