HILLSIDE WORKERS

Evening Star, Issue 23968, 20 August 1941, Page 3

HILLSIDE WORKERS

APPEALS FOR BOILERMAKERS EXPERIENCED CASUALS DISMISSED The dismissal of 22 casual boilermakers from the Hillside Workshops owing to slackness of work, when appeals were lodged on behalf of two permanent employees doing the same type of work, was the subject of comment at a sitting of the Armed Forces Appeal Board yesterday afternoon. The men wore John Desmond Fairley and Roy Winfred Nieper. The workshops manager (Mr W. L. M'Evoy), representing the Director of National Service, appealed against service in the forces on behalf of two young boilermakers on the ground of public interest. He admitted that some of the men who had been dismissed were elderly and thoroughly experienced first-class men. Some were married, but owing to slackness of work they had to bo put off. Materials were not available. Questioned by the chairman of the board (Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M.), the manager said the men were “ permanent casuals.” The difference between them and the permanent men was that the latter enjoyed certain privileges the casuals did not. Some of the casuals were more experienced than the permanent men appealed for, he admitted. One of these men, he said, was 21-J years of age. Asked by Mr A. N. Haggitt, for the Crown, if lie had ever had one of these young men refusing to bo appealed for, Mr M'Evoy said he had had one, which elicited the remark that it was surprising he had not had more. After some deliberation by the hoard Mr Bartholomew said at the moment they were far from satisfied. The board had to bo satisfied the services of a reservist could not ho dispensed with. All the evidence the hoard had before it was that these men were boilermakers. “Wo are not satisfied,” ho reiterated. “ The hearings will be adjourned until the next sittings, when it will be necessary to produce further evidence from the department that these men are indispensable and that their services cannot be replaced.”