OVERTIME BAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24506, 15 January 1941, Page 8

OVERTIME BAN

AUSTRALIAN PROPOSAL INDUSTRIAL DISCORD SMALL COTERIE BLAMED (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Tasman Air Mail) SYDNEY, Jan, 11. Disputes, strikes and proposed strikes in munition factories and heavy industries and.cn the northern coalfields in New South Wales are threatening Australia's industrial war effort. They are putting the newly-implemented arbitration machinery to a severe test. Ministers and judges blame a small coterie, of union officials .for the disputes, while union officials, .accuse the Government and employers of being responsible for the stoppages. The largest bene of contention is the application of the new Federal taxation scale to overtime earned by the employees. • Union representatives claim that under the new. Federal taxation, and the State' unemployment tax, one-third of the money earned in 16 hours' overtime is paid in taxation. They claim that any money earned through working overtime. should be exempt from taxation. , ■ :1 ; Taxation on Overtime ' Boilermakers and ironworkers, numbering 14,000, threaten to strike if the Commonwealth Government does hot agree to remit taxation on their;evertime wages.. This affects dockyards engaged on naval; construction, as well as shops doing defence work. ; Engineers in 40 metal .trades shops in Sydney threaten to strike unless ■ they are paid fori a full week's holiday annually in addition to statutory holidays. Under their hew award, they' were granted a - week's holiday annually, but some firms included Christmas Day and Boxing Day in the week, which the employees claimed; was »a breach of the award.*.'.■'.-■• : -.;'.• ■ : Empldyees numbering iIOO at: the Commonwealth Steel Company's works at Newcastle (employed mostly on'defence work) demand a.; SJ-day week, instead cf a' seven-day roster, an in-, crease in.: wages of 6s - a week, 'and seven days' annual leave with full pay. About 2000 munition workers a't-Lith-gow demand that- overtime wages should be exempted from taxation, and have agreed to stop working overtime unless the demand is met. Wage Increases Wanted About 800 engineers in collieries throughout New South Wales ' have grievances over overtime and the proposed coal tribunal. About 3000 moulders, ironworkers and engine-drivers in foundries threaten to strike unless they receive wage increases from 3s to 6s a week, already given to engineers and other war workers;. ■:',. -/'-:. •,.' ;'.';'..■■■. : 7 '., If a ban on overtime is imposed, or the three unions goon sMke; important.. branches of the war effort, including the naval shipbuilding programme and munitions production will be hampered. Employees at Garden Island naval dockyards. Cockatoo Dock; /and Mort's Dock will be included in ! the embargo. . ' -,- ?,*.v."'. The employees at the Commonwealth Steel Company's works who were 'oh strike were ordered by Judge O'Mara in the Commonwealth Arbitration Court, to resume work on a five and a-half day week basis until the court had investigated their claims. The men, who are members of the Ironworkers' Union, demanded that the seven-day roster system imposed by the company should be withdrawn and a five and a-half day week .-reinstalled, 1 - The company claimed that the. seven-day roster was necessary to meet an urgent demand by the" Ministry of Munitions that the plant should be; worked at its utmost to carry but "urgero'wa^^brk;' The court is inquiring to ascertain the munition output required of ■ .the' Company. The alarm of the Government at, the number of disputes was expressed, in an appeal by the: Minister of. Labour, Mr Slolt, to unionists engaged' bniwai work not to strike, but to.use the new ; " streamlined" conciliation machinery introduced by him. ~ ,< : : -

Nation's Security. Jeopardisedl; "There is evidence of determination on the part of some union leaders, in New South Wales to- exploit:the pres r > ent industrial situation,'not only/at; the expense of the community generally,, but at the hazard, of-the- nation's security," said Mr Holt " '-Every loyal; workman, if he remains continuously engaged on his particular job, is assured that if he has any grievances as a result of the abnormal conditions of the war, there is industrial machinery readily available tP deal with that grievance promptly.. .Union agitators who invite thg worker his tools before using the industrial machinery can be actuated only by a policy of exploitation, without regard to the national interest." Union leaders replied promptly to Mr Holt. The Federal secretary of the Waterside Workers' Federation, Mr J. Heafy, blamed the " procrastination and delay- in Federal Government quarters as the cause of most of,the industrial disputes." *';' ,'■•• "Notwithstanding the claims made by Mr Holt that every effort has been made to ' streamline' the-machinery for dealing with industrial disputes," said Mr Healy, "there are still many matters that do not receive attention, and complaints made by the waterside workers since last November have not yet been dealt with by the Government." "This welter of appeals from Ministers and judges should be directed to the employers," said the Federal secretary of the-' Ironworkers' Union, Mr E. Thornton. " The idea advanced by Mr Holt that the lockout is the counterpart of the strike is not correct. The counterpart of the strike is the dismissal of good union members one by one. The main disputes that I have experienced during the last few mcnths have been caused by employers dismissing good union men or altering existing conditions.'