WHARF WORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24049, 21 August 1941, Page 10

WHARF WORK

HEGKADING OF MEN DISCIPLINARY MEASURE COMPLAINT AND REPLY A complaint that the system of grading waterside workers was being used as a disciplinary measure has been made by the new president of the Auckland Waterside Workers' Union, Mr. H. Barnes. If an A grade man did not do more than 75 per cent of the overtime offering in a week be was reduced to B grade, be said. There was not one holiday he could take without incurring penalties. There was a guarantee of £3 3s a week for A grade workers, but the B class, originally a voluntary class for older men who did not want to work overtime, had no guarantee, said Mr. Barnes. If a man took more than one night off in a week wlien there was sufficient shipping to keep him working 12 hours a day for seven days he would be penalised and lose his guarantee. There might be no overtime work at night for six nights a week. If there should be overtime work on the seventh night and he did not make himself available for it he would be regraded. Some penalties were imposed by the union itself, said Mr. Barnes, but the rcgrading discipline was imposed by the Waterfront Control Commission. Controller's Statement In a reply to a statement by Captain It. S. Lewis, chairman of the Port of Auckland Shipping and Stevedores' Association, that individual workers had the right, if properly exercised, to sign off at five o'clock in the evening, Mr. Barnes said that that was the opinion of the union, but not of Mr. R. E. Price, chairman of the commission, Only this week Mr. Price had penalised men to the extent of five days for exercising that right. "The regrading as a disciplinary measure has not created any serious injury to the greater majority of the men," said Captain C. V. Stanich, waterfront controller, yesterday. The commission's order gave individual workers the right to refuse overtime, but the increasing number of men signing off at five o'clock presented a difficult problem. Admittedly replacements were usually found/but only after considerable inconvenience. "No Ground for Complaint" "The proportionate number of men ceasing work at five o'clock daily at Auckland now greatly exceeds that of ; any port in the Dominion," said Captain Stanich. "In an endeavour to give some slight preference to those men who keep their refusals to work overtime within - reasonable limits, it was decided to revert to the B class, all men who had refused 33 1-3 per cent and over of overtime offered to them over a 13-week period. There was no ground for serious complaint, Captain Stanich added, when it was taken into consideration that a 13-week period was used, and that, on the numerous occasions when there was no work available after 6 p.m., the worker was regarded as having accepted overtime. Refusals of overtime were very rare on Saturdays and Sundays. Only 19 men had been reverted to the B grade out of 1100 A grade men. Work in Meal Hours There was every facility for men to sign _ off from duty, said Captain Stanich. The statement that a man could not take one holiday without a penalty was true if the suspension of the guaranteed wage for a week was regarded as a penalty. There were very few occasions on which the guaranteed wage was paid. "The statement regarding men penalised this week is grossly unfair in its suggestion that the men were penalised for exercising their right to refuse overtime," said Captain Stanich. "The men were penalised for failing to continue in their duties between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., which is regarded as a meal hour, and not overtime. The overtime period on ordinary week nights commences after tbe meal hour period, when the mep have the right to refuse overtime individually. A different position arises when it comes to the working of meal hours, the commission's order making it obligatory for the men to work meal hours when required. In cases where the meal hour is worked, an hour is provided immediately following for the meal hour, and the men receive double time for the hour which they work." WAGES RECEIVED THE A GRADE MEN Figures showing that A grade waterside workers at Auckland received an average weekly wage of £9 8s 4d during the six months ended July 1 were given yesterday by the Auckland waterfront controller, Captain C. V. Stanich. The average included bonus distributions under the contract system, said Captain Stanich, who was answering a claim made on Monday by the president of the Auckland Waterside Workers' Union, Mr. H. Barnes, that unionists averaged only £6 a week. The corresponding average weekly hours for A grade workers were 25 ordinary working hours and 17 hours' overtime. For the same period, B grade men received an average weekly wage of £5 lis sd. The corresponding average weekly hours in their case were 19 ordinary and eight overtime, a total of only 27' hours. "In the period under review, 1100 A grade men and 186 B grade men were employed," said Captain Stanich. The figures quoted included a proportion of the £IB,OOO that had been paid out in bonus distributions since last September. The bonuses were made under the contract system, which started in a small way last September, and until May applied to overseas vessels only.