BUS DISPUTE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25300, 6 September 1945, Page 4

BUS DISPUTE

DBIVEES MEET TODAY EMERGENCY SERVICES Auckland bus services will be dis- , rupted this morning while the drivers attend a stop-work meeting m it- , Trades Eall to discuss grievances, the j drivers will cease work in time to be ] at the ball by 10.30, and during their . absence skeleton services will be j operated by most of the companies. . The meeting is likely to last for about . two hours. • Skeleton services will be provided by j the Passenger Transport Co., the North Shore Transport Co., and L. J. Ltd. The Transport Bus Service will operate similar schedules on the runs between Auckland and Titirangi and Auckland and New Lynn during the absence of the drivers, and the company's runs between Blockhouse and Avondale, Portland Road and the city, Point Resolution and the city and Waikowhai and the city will be suspended while the drivers are absent. W ,J Wheeler and Sons intend to maintain a full service. Inspectors will be called upon by the various companies to drive the buses. 300 Drivers Affected One of the purposes of the stop-work meeting, which will aficct about 000 drivers, is to vote on a. recommendation which was sent forward from the special meeting of delegates on Tuesday night. Although the recommendation has a bearing on the men's grievances, its nature and possible effects have not been revealed. The meeting will also receive a report on a recent conference between delegates and the actingMinister of Labour, Mr O'Brien. Referring to a suggestion that it would be reasonable for the men to I defer the matter until after the conciliation proceedings in Wellington next week between the proprietors and the j union, the secretary of the Auckland; Drivers' Union. Mr L. G. Matthews, said yesterday that the Auckland drivers were not concerned with the Dominion conciliation proceedings and would not be represented there. Statement by Owners "The Omnibus Proprietors' Association sincerely regrets the serious inconvenience that "ill be caused to the public by the stop-work meeting," said the vice-president of the New Zealand Omnibus Proprietors' Association, Mr A. S. Bailey. "As far as possible, a skeleton service will be operated. "We have complied with the law in every respect and have met the union on every occasion," he said. "We have not taken any action that should have precluded the dispute proceeding in accordance with the Labour Disputes Investigation Act, and the union's suggestion that it had 110 alternative but to refer the matter to a stop-work meeting is absurd. The setting up of a tribunal was entirelv beyond our jurisdiction. "In our meetings with the drivers we have conceded of the demands and have given conditions and pay far in excess of the rest of New Zealand," said Mr Bailey. "In the 25-mile area, where the union lias been deregistered. we have offered a 40-hour week, excluding Sunday. If the driver is called on to work on a Sunday he is paid double time for the hours worked, with a minimum of four hours. We have conceded overtime at the rate of time and a-half for the first three hours a week and double time thereafter. Wages are £6 lis for a 40-hour week. Where more than three shifts in twelve are broken, the proprietors have offered the men Is 6d extra a shift. Holidays and Earnings "Broken shifts may be worked a maximum of nine hours a day, spread over 12 hours; that is, -12 hours from the time of beginning the first leg of the shift to the end of the second leg," said Mr Bailey. "This is essential to cope with morning and evening loading, and the demands for a reduction of these hours are therefore impossible of performance. The annual holidays offered to the drivers are three weeks in every nine months, to compensate for the necessity for working on public holidays." Under the conditions existing at present, drivers were averaging between £8 and £9 a week for not more than a 46-hour week, said Mr Bailey. The proprietors had gone a long way to meet the union's demands. A continuation of these increases, in addition to higher running costs, could be met only by an increase in fares.