MINERS RESENT STRIKE PENALTY LEGISLATION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22698, 24 July 1948, Page 6

MINERS RESENT STRIKE PENALTY LEGISLATION

SYDNEY, July 23,

The Joint Coal Board has asked the Coal Industry Tribunal, sitting under Mr. F. Gallagher, to treat as urgent the application for a hearing of the proposals to penalise colliery strikers. The penalty proposals, which centre about the allotment of holiday pay, are strongly opposed by the miners’ leaders.

The board has asked that the miners be compelled to work five days before and five days after a statutory holiday to qualify to be paid for it. The miners are now obliged to work one day before and one after a statutory holiday to qualify for payment.

The board brought this and other matters before the tribunal on April 8, but, on receipt of an undertaking from the Miners’ Federation that petty stoppages would be outlawed and the output improved, the matter was stood over. Hopes for improvement did not eventuate and on June 24 the board was forced to order restrictions on consumption, even by essential consumers.

"This is one of the lowest tricks to be played on any organisation," said the president of the Miners’ Federation, Mr. I. Williams. “The board's request will only antagonise the people producing coal and will create greater chaos in the industry.” "Our slogan is, ‘What we have we hold,’ ” said Mr. G. W. S. Grant, secretary of the Ministers' Federation. "If this is restored to the list, the reaction of the men will result in a greater loss of coal.”

Mr. Gallagher: That would be a wrong reaction and you, as leader, should do your best to remove it. The men will get a very fair hearing. Eleven pits were idle yesterday for the loss of 56C7 tons.

A miner accidentally wet by a hose was refused compensation money, whereupon all the miners employed at one colliery walked out. All the mills at Lysaghts sheet metal works, Newcastle, will close at midnight tonight because all the coal stocks are exhausted.