EFFORTS TO SETTLE FIREMEN’S DISPUTE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22816, 10 December 1948, Page 8

EFFORTS TO SETTLE FIREMEN’S DISPUTE

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 10. On representations by the New Zealand Fire Boards’ Association, Municipal Association and United Fire Brigades’ Association, the Government decided to set up a committee to give a definition of firemen other than fulltime firemen and the extent to which they should be required to join the various Fire Brigade Employees' Unions said the Minister of Labour, Mr. A. McLagan, yesterday. It was suggested to the three associations and the union that a committee consisting of three from each side, with an independent chairman, should be established and they were asked to give an assurance that the decisions of the committee would be incorporated in any settlement arrived at before the councils of conciliation. The union advised that it was willing to accept this method of settling a longstanding dispute but, unfortunately, neither the Fire Boards Association nor the United Fire Brigades’ Association were agreeable to the appointment of a committee. Abortive Conferences

The Minister explained that over the last 12 months three conferences had been held between the representatives of the various organisations and at the last discussion it appeared unlikely that the dispute could be finally determined unless some third party was given authority to make a decision . It was for this reason that a committee was suggested. Following the Fire Brigades and Fire Boards Associations’ refusal to accept the Government's suggestion of a committee, it was proposed that a further conference of all parties be called in Wellington next week at which the chairman would have no voting power, the idea being that the parties should again make every attempt to arrive at a complete settlement. "The United Fire Brigades’ Association have refused to attend a conference of this nature,” he said. “Their attitude is difficult to understand as attendance would in no way commit their organisation to any particular course of action,” said Mr. McLagan. “It appears that the only method by which this question can now be determined is for the matter to be discussed in the Conciliation Council and, failing agreement there, for it to be decided by the Court of Arbitration.” Shor’d Know Wives arc among the best judges of drunkenness. Police, medical and laboratory tests are often inconclusive in borderline cases and intimate knowledge of the individuals’s idiosyneracies is necessary. That is where the wife comes in.—A magistrate in an address to the Adelaide Legacy Club.