WORK TO RESUME AT BELFAST

Southland Times, Issue 24003, 19 December 1939, Page 6

WORK TO RESUME AT BELFAST

FINDING OF DISPUTES COMMITTEE EMPLOYMENT OF EXTRA LABOUR (United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, December 18. Work will be resumed tomorrow at Borthwick’s Belfast works. This agreement was reached this morning and later in the day the chairman of the disputes committee (Mr S. Ritchie) announced His finding that the third chain which the company proposed to establish was a separate unit and that the men from the existing chains could not be transferred to it. This ruling, the chairman explained, prevented Hie men employed on the additional chain sharing in the pool earned by the existing two chains. The contention of the company when it advised its intention to introduce a third chain was that six men employed last season as extras on the first two chains should be employed so that reliefs should be available at any time for Numbers 1 and 2 chains, which employed 35 men each. “The decision of the committee, said Mr Ritchie, “does not dispose of the question of spare workers who are necessary for the efficient working of the industry, but that matter is being discussed by the parties concerned.”