MARINE ENGINEERS' DISPUTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15235, 24 February 1913, Page 8

MARINE ENGINEERS' DISPUTE.

APPEAL TO CONCILIATION. [BY TELEGRAPH.OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Sunday. The Union Steam Ship Company has made formal application to have Che dispute in which it is at present engaged with the marine engineers in its employ, heard before the Conciliation Council. The application is dated February 21. The other party to the dispute will bo tho Marine Engineers' Institute, which is registered under the provisions of the Industrial, Conciliation, and Arbitration Act. The institute, which is affiliated, or in close touch with similar bodies in Australia and abroad,, lias about 600 New Zealand members, of whom 300 are employed ashore, and the other half mostly in the ships of the Union Company's fleet.

Private negotiations have been proceeding for some time past between the Union Company and tho marine engineers, in. its employ, and it was recently reported that the engineers were taking a ballot, which would be completed about the end of this month, to determine whether they should accept or reject the conditions offered by the company. The matters in dispute are wages and conditions of employment, and the engineers desire to obtain 1 the same conditions as those recently granted by an award to the marine engineers in Australia. One point in dispute in New Zealand is that of overtime.* The engineers demand overtime for all work extending over a longer period than eight hours in any one day, while the company, it is stated, wishes to pay overtime only for the hours worked in excess of 56 in any one week. Thus, if an engineer did no work on Sunday, but worked 56 hours on other days of the week, he would be paid no overtime under the proposal of the com- | pany, but would be paid overtime under j the conditions demanded by the institute.