APPLICATION TO ADD PARTY

Southland Times, Issue 23855, 28 June 1939, Page 7

APPLICATION TO ADD PARTY

N.Z. DRIVERS’ UNION AWARD HEARING BY COURT OF ARBITRATION “It is sufficient to say that attempts by one union to encroach on the rights of another should not be assisted by the Court,” commented Mr H. J. Bishop, of Wellington, in the Arbitration Court yesterday when giving reasons for opposing an application to add New Zealand Milk Products Ltd., as a party to the New Zealand Motor and Horse Drivers’ Award. “Here is the case of a union with ample power in its rules to admit drivers to membership and another union makes an application which, if granted, will cause them-to relinquish membership of a union in which they have remained since 1915, to join another one which has not the same ability to protect them.” The application concerned two drivers in the employ of the company, said Mr F. C. Allerby, Of Wellington, who represented the Drivers’ Union, the applicant. It had been before the Court on another occasion but no decision had been given, although it was understood

that the company would be exempt until evidence was taken at Invercargill. The union felt that the company rightly should be added to the award. In the industrial agreement between the company and the Southland Milk Condensing Factories’ Employees’ Union there were no provisions for drivers. The agreement concerned workers working in or about the factory. “We claim that the two drivers are not ‘in or about the factory,’ ” said Mr Allerby, “They are engaged in driving away from the factory and their work takes them out of the factory.” The hours of the agreement provided for a 48-hour week, but if the drivers were working under the general award they would be working a 44-hour week, he said. They would also receive benefit .from the higher scale of wages fixed by the drivers’ award. “We say the drivers in this factory are not covered by the industrial agreement,” added Mr Allerby. REASONS FOR OPPOSITION The company opposed the application on the following grounds, said Mr Bishop: That the workers in question are members of another union which has power in its rules to cover them; that they are covered by an industrial agreement made between the company and the Southland Milk Condensing Factories’ Employees’ Industrial Union of Workers. . The union had been in existence since 1915, and had worked under its own industrial agreements since that time, said Mr Bishop. The membership rule of the latest agreement stated: “The union shall consist of an unlimited number of male and female employees (other than clerks) working in or in connection with a milk condensing factory in the Southland provincial district.” Mr Bishop submitted that the words “in or in connection with” were clearly wide enough to include drivers. Moreover, the drivers concerned—there were only two—had been in the company’s employ since 1913 and had been members of the union since its formation. He was satisfied that the drivers were properly covered by the agreement.

The Magistrate (Mr J. A. Gilmour): I hardly see how another union is necessary if the men already are covered by the rules of the existing union.

Asked if the men had participated in all the benefits of the award, Mr Bishop said that they had done so. They also received annual holidays on full pay. - ~ Mr Allerby pointed out to the Court that the company was in the manufacturing business, just as many other manufacturing businesses, which employed drivers, were. All the drivers carted produce of some kind and the company’s drivers could not be regarded as being in a different class of worker.

The Magistrate said that it seemed as if the men were covered by the present industrial agreement. Mr Allerby: Yes, but we maintain that the men are not getting the benefits to which they are entitled. Mr Bishop: We have had no request from the men to be included in the drivers’ award. The Magistrate said he would reserve his decision. THEATRE EMPLOYEES Agreement on all points was reached in the Southland theatre employees’ dispute, according to information supplied to the Court by Messrs L. S. Alsweiler, for the employers, and D. W. Stalker, for the employees, and the Magistrate said that an award would be made in the terms of the recommendations of the Conciliation Council.

The Social Round is printed this morning on Page 9.