HOSPITAL PORTERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26028, 17 December 1945, Page 4

HOSPITAL PORTERS

REPORT OF STRIKE THREAT DENIAL BY STAFF MEMBERS A press statement on Saturday night that the staff' of porters at the Dunedin Public Hospital, numbering about 20, was to cease work at 10 o’clock this morning, as a protest against the delay by the Otago Hospital Board in paying increases in salary made retrospective to April 1 of this year under the terms of an Arbitration Court order, would appear to have been premature. Some of the porters have communicated with the secretary of the board (Mr J. Jacobs) and the medical superintendent of the Dunedin Hospital (Dr J. Thomson) stating that they desired to dissociate themselves from the threat, and one of them, informed a Daily Times reporter last night that it would be fair to say that the whole affair was a “ wash out.” Dr Thomson said yesterday that the first intimation he had had that the porters were dissatisfied was when he saw the press account.' If the men had a complaint, he added, it should have been submitted to him so that he could place it before the Hospital Board. Mr Jacobs also said that he had previously had no knowledge of the threat credited to the porters. Every effort was being made, Mr Jacobs added, to speed up the work entailed in computing the amount the men were entitled to receive, and they would be paid before Christmas the accumulated amount of the increase. He pointed out that 18 different awards covered the 800 hospital employees, exclusive of the awards involving the salaries of the nurses, and as a retrospective salary increase was allowed for in each of the awards the clerical work involved had been considerable. In view of the assurance of Mr Jacobs that the porters will receive their back pay before Christmas—that is, within eight days—it can be seen that actually no object would be served if the men were to cease work.