TO BE DISMISSED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22694, 5 April 1937, Page 8

TO BE DISMISSED

MEN STOPPING WOKE railway servants warned ATTITUDE OF THE MINISTER ECHO OF OTAHUHU MEETING Dismissal will follow any stopwork meetings of railway servants held without permission, and coercive tactics by employees will be dealt with in the same way, said the Minister of Railways, the Hon. D« G. Sullivan, in a statement made from Wellington by telephone yesterday. The Government, he said, would not tolerate such, actions and he had instructed the'general manager of rail, ways, Mr. G. H. Macklev, to dismiss any men who in future adopted the attitude reported to have been taken recently by boilermakers at Otahuhu. "I wish to inake it clear," said Mr. Sullivan, "that if the boilermakers at the railway workshops at Otahuhu held a stopwork meeting, as they themselves claim Jhoy did in a newspaper message published yesterday, neither the Government nor myself, ass Minister of Railways, will permit a repetition of such a gross breach of the regulations. Sell-imposed Dismissal "I have therefore given instruction* to the general manager of railways, Mr. G. H. Macklev, that if in future any individual or group of individuals adopts the attitude that the boilermakers at Otahuhu claim they adopted —in ceasing work and holding a stopwork meeting without permissionthen the services of those so acting are to be dispensed with without further reference to me as Minister in charge of the department. "Those guilty of such conduct in the future will therefore bring upon them« selves automatic and self-imposed dismissal," said Mr. Sullivan. "I deem it necessary to make this public statement in order to remove any public misconception that might exist in the minds of those inside or outside the railway service as to the attitude that will be adopted by the Government to. ward any attempt at coercion in the settlement of staff disputes." Investigation of Complaints

Ample provision was already mad® for the settlement of such disputes, said Mr. Sullivan, and suitable facilities existed for the staff, or any part of it, to present complaints through their organisations, firstly to the management and subsequently, if necessary, to himself. In the event of a mutually satisfactory solution not being found the Government had embodied in the amending railway legislation of last session provision for the setting up of a tribunal for the investigation of any complaint that could not be settled by means of the ordinary channels.

"I have strong faith." said Mr< Sullivan, "that the various railwaymen's organisations and an overwhelming majority of the railwaymen of XeT Zealand will support me unhesitating!/ in the stand 1 am taking."