ANNUAL TICKET

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 90, 13 October 1938, Page 10

ANNUAL TICKET

PAYMENT OF UNION

LEVIES

WARNING TO EMPLOYERS

A warning that the union intends to take action against those employers who have in their service after the end of this month employees who have not their annual ticket has been issued by the Wellington, Nelson, and Westland Labourers' and Related Trades Industrial Union of Workers, in conjunction with the Municipal and General Workers' Union. The following is the text of the circular that has been sent out from the Trades -Hall, Wellington, under date October 7: — Dear Sir,— MEMBERSHIP IN UNION. For your information, we have to advise that the above union has now an annual ticket, which should be in the possession of all financial members. This ticket is now due, and unless the workers covered by our awards have the ticket before the end of the present month they are no longer members of the above union and are accordingly not entitled to the benefits of the award. The ticket costs 25s per year, payable in advance, and the date is clearly shown on the ticket—l93B-39. You should, therefore, see that all employees under your jurisdiction who are employed under the award have this ticket before the end of the month. Any worker under the award who has not got the ticket before the end of the month is no longer a member of the union. Therefore, any employer who employs a worker without the current ticket after the end of this month is liable for employing a non-unionist in accordance with the terms of the award. This information is forwarded to you so that there may be no misunderstanding regarding the position. After the end of the month, if any employer engages a worker without the current ticket, the union intends to take action in the matter for a breach of the award. Trusting that this information will be of service to you in this-re-spect.—-Yours faithfully, P. M. BUTLER, Secretary. NO AUTHORITY FOR DEMAND. The point made in this letter was the subject of a statement issued in Christchurch by the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) and published in the "Evening Post" on October 11. Referring to the reported action of the Hawke's Bay Builders' and General Labourers* Union, the Minister said that it had no authority to notify the Hastings Borough Council that that body would be liable for prosecution if it employed after October 17 lab-! ourers who had not paid in advance their union fees for the next twelve months. The Minister said that an amendment providing for the payment of union fees twelve months in advance had been* applied for by the union, but had not been approved by the Registrar of Industrial Unions. Until it was so approved it had no force. "In any case," the Minister added, "the Government would not encourage any move to extract lump-sum payments in advance from scheme 5 and 13 workers."