A QUESTION OF URGENCY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18894, 17 December 1924, Page 14

A QUESTION OF URGENCY.

SHIPPING REPAIR WORK.

COURT ASKED FOR RULING.

A question of considerable interest to shipping was raised in the Arbitration Court yesterday, when Mr. R. F. Barter, on behalf of the. Boilermakers' Union, asked for a decision as to the meaning of the word "urgent" as applied to work coming within the overtime clause. He pointed out that sub-clause 2 stipulated that men should not work on the night of the union meeting or on Friday night, except on breakdowns or urgent work.

The difficulty had arisen, Mr. Barter naid, through employers saying that ovary job which came along was urgent. Ho cited the repairs to the steamer Atua, on which the men worked night and day, as the job was classed as urgent. Yet, when the ship was repaired, she. lay in the iitream for two years. Later, when Bhe was reconnnissioned and certain work Had to be done, the boilermakers again were called upon to work overtime. If the Court could define the position it would remove a bono of contention.

Mr. Justice Frazor said urgency was purely a relative matter, and he did not sec bow the Court, could lay down a list of matters that could be treated as urgent. A disputes committee might consider what was the position in any special ease. Urgent work could only be defined in general terms. It was work which had to be. got through as speedily as possible. If not carried through as speedily as possible it would cause delay and inconvenience.

Mr. S. F. Wright, for the employers, said that so fur as a special committee was concerned, before that could be set up the work i A , ould have been done. Employers claimed that all work on a ship in dock wasi urgent, and the fact that they were willing to pay 50 to 100 per cent, more wages was surely sufficient proof that the work was urgent. They had come to an agreement on the point with the ironworkers' labourers.

In reply to Mr. Wright, His Efouor said that, owing to the necessity for a dock being vacated as quickly as possible he thought, work on a ship in dock would almost necessarily be deemed urgent work. So far as ship work outside of do;'ks was concerned, his view was that generally it was urgent because a ship had to pro. coed on her voyage, and it was an expensive thing to keep a vessel tied up. Probably there were cubes where the work was not of ai' urgent nature. Bi>t the exceptions could not be dealt with on general lines. Each had to lie considered on its merits, with the possible exception of a ship in dock. If was the exceptional case I hat called for the most forbearance between the parties, and it was desirable to gjet someone not concerned with the particular dispute to consider tho facts and give a decision. Decision was reserved.