EMPLOYERS PROTEST

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 225, 22 August 1945, Page 4

EMPLOYERS PROTEST

INTERFERENCE BY MINISTER. (Press Assn.) AUCKLAND, Aug. 22. An emphatic protest against the statement by the Acting-Minister of Labour (Mr O'Brien) in connection with the claims of the Westland timber workers, which are still sub judice, with the Arbitration Court, was contained in a telegram sent to the Minister todav by the Timber Industry Employers' Union. While visiting Greymouth in an endeavour to effect a settlement of the timber workers' strike Mr O'Brien is reported to have promised that if no provision was made in the award for the wet weather experienced on the West Coast he would have negotiations opened with the employers with a view to coming to, an agreement on the question of wet time. He said that if a satisfactory agreement could be made it could be added to the award. "The Westland timber workers' dispute was heard by the Arbitration Court about two months ago," said the secretary of the Employers' Union (Mr A. Seed). "The award has not yet been announced. The strike, as far as the employers are aware, was called by the secretary of the Westland Timber Workers' Union as a protest against the Court's delay. The employers were in no way implicated. We are alarmed that the industrial machinery set up by the Government through the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act should be subject to Ministerial influence."