HARBOUR BOARD EMPLOYEES

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 November 1944, Page 2

HARBOUR BOARD EMPLOYEES

AUCKLAND CLAIMS CONTESTED

AUCKLAND, October 31

Claims have been submitted by 37 Auckland Harbour Board employees for a total of £2325 for overtime worked on Sundays and holidays. In a report received at a meeting of the Board, the Engineer-Superintendent (Mr D. Holderness) said the claims covered a period of about 18 months, from January, 1943, to July, 1944. Although the matter had not previously been contested in Auckland, it was known that a Dominion-wide dispute regarding payment at overtime rates for work performed on Sundays and holidays by Harbour Board employees whose normal duties required them to work on those days would eventually be taken up in this port, said Mr Holderness. Proceedings had been instituted by the Inspector of Awards. The classifications involved in the claim were principally those in the harbour department, where a 24-hour round the clock service must be maintained all the year round, said Mr Holderness. There were also certain limited claims in regard to gatekepers in the traffic department. In accordance with the decision of the New Zealand Harbour Boards’ Employers’ Union, the claims would be contested on behalf of the employers’ union by its solicitor, Mr Stevenson, when they came up for hearing in the Arbitration Court at its sittings in Auckland, at present set down for November 22.