NO OVERTIME

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 10, 13 January 1941, Page 9

NO OVERTIME

AUSTRALIAN MINE

WAR INDUSTRIES AFFECTED

PAYMENT OF TAXES

(By Trans-Tasman Air Mail, from "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, January 11

Disputes, strikes, and proposed strikes in munition factories and heavy industries and on the northern coalfields in New South Wales are threatening Australia's industrial war effort. They are putting the newly-implemented arbitration machinery, to a severe test. Ministers and Judges blame a small coterie of union officials for the disputes, while union officials accuse the Government and employers of being: responsible for the stoppages.

| The largest bone of contention is the application of the new Federal taxation scale .to 'overtime earned.by the employees. Union representatives claim that under the new Federal taxation, and the State unemployment tax, one-third of the money earned in 16 hours' overtime is paid in taxation. They claim that any money earned through working overtime should be exempt from taxation.

Boilermakers and ironworkers, numbering 14,000, threaten to strike if the Commonwealth Government does not agree to remit taxation on their overtime wages. This affects dockyards 'engaged on.naval construction, as well as shops 'doing defence work. Engineers in 40 metal trades shops in Sydney threaten to strike unless they are paid for a full week's holiday annually in addition to statutory holidays. Under a new award, they were granted a week's holiday annually, but some firms included Christmas Day and Boxing Day in the week, which the employees claimed was a breach of the award. MORE WAGES; SHORTER HOURS.

Employees (1100) at the Commonwealth Steel Company's works at Newcastle (employed mostly on defence work) demand a s£-day week, instead of a seven-day roster, an increase in wages of 6s a week, and seven days' annual leave with full pay. About 2000 munition workers at Lithgow demand that overtime wages should be exempted from taxation, and have agreed to stop working overtime unless the demand is met. . About 800 engineers in collieries throughout New South Wales have grievances over overtime and the proposed coal tribunal. About 3000 moulders, ironworkers and enginedrivers in foundries threaten to strike unless they receive wage increases from 3s to 6s a week, already given to engineers and other .war workers. If a ban on overtime is imposed, or the three unions go on strike, important branches of the war effort, including the naval shipbuilding programme and munitions production, will be hampered. Employees at Garden Island naval dockyards, Cockatoo Dock, and Mort's Dock will be included in the embargo. The employees at the Commonwealth Steel company's works who were on strike were ordered by Judge O'Mara in the Commonwealth Arbitration Court to resume work on a si-day week basis until the Court had investigated and decided on their claims. The men, who are members of the Ironworkers' Union, demanded that the seven-day roster system imposed by the company be withdrawn and a s£-day week reinstalled. The company claimed that the seven-day roster was necessary to meet an urgent demand by the Minis- j try of Munions that the plant should be worked at its utmost to carry out j urgent war work. The Court is inquiring to ascertain the munitions output required of the company. GOVERNMENT ALARMED. The alarm of the Government at the number of disputes was expressed in an appeal by the Minister of Labour, Mr. Holt, to unionists engaged on war work not to strike, but to use the new "streamlined" conciliation machinery introduced by him. , •There is evidence of determination on the part of some union leaders in New South Wales to exploit the present industrial situation, not only at the expense of the community generally, but at the hazard of the nation's security," said Mr. Holt. "Every loyal workman, if he remains continuously engaged on his particular job, is assured that if he has any grievances as a result of the abnormal conditions of the war, there is industrial machinery readily available to deal with that grievance promptly. Union agitators who invite the worker to drop his tools before using the industrial machinery can be actuated only by a policy of exploitation, without regard to the national interest." UNION COMPLAINT. Union leaders replied promptly to Mr; Holt. The Federal secretary of the Waterside Workers' Federation, Mr. J. Healy* blamed the "procrastination and delay in Federal Government quarters as the cause of most of the industrial disputes." ''Notwithstanding the claims made by Mr. Holt that every effort has been made to 'streamline the machinery for dealing with industrial disputes," said Mr. Healy, "there are still many matters that do not receive attention, and complaints made by the watersiders since last November have not yet been dealt with by the Government." ..■■'. "This welter of appeals from Ministers and Judges should be directed to the employers," said the Federal secretary of the Ironworkers' Uniorl, Mr. E. Thornton. "The idea advanced by Mr. Holt that the lock-out is the counterpart of the strike is not correct. The counterpart of the strike is the dismissal of good union members one by one. The main disputes that I have experienced during the last few months have been caused by employers dismissing good union men or altering existing conditions."