WEST COAST MINERS

Southland Times, Issue 21430, 26 June 1931, Page 7

WEST COAST MINERS

DECISION NOT TO PAY LEVY. POSITION OF EMPLOYERS. Greymouth. June 24. Interesting developments are expected on the West Coast coal-field, following the decision made by’ the miners’ unions in the district not to pay the unemployment levy. It is stated that all the unions in the district took a ballot on the question on Tuesday, but apparently the decision was not made known until to-day. The decision not to pay the levy threatens to accentuate the present trouble on the field, and the miners’ employers, who are obliged by the terms of the Unemployment Act to see that their employees pay the levy, are wondering where they stand in the matter, and what steps the Government will take to see that the Act is enforced. Legislation forbids the mine employers from deducting the levy from the miners’ wages. The manager of one mine stated yesterday that the employers had been placed in a very awkward position by the decision, for under the Act any person who employs for more than seven days without the authority of the Unemployment Board, a worker who is more than one month in arrears with his levy, is liable to a fine not exceeding £2O. The fact that the Government itself was a large employer of miners made the situation more piquant.