ADJUSTMENT OF HOURS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20511, 1 September 1936, Page 11

ADJUSTMENT OF HOURS

FRICTION AT WAIHI MINERS NOT AT WORK By Telegraph—Pres.® Association WAIHI, August 31. A mass meeting of members of local unions associated with the mining industry held yesterday morning to discuss the 40-hour week, passed the following resolutions: “That this meeting of unions emphatically protest against the judgment of the Arbitration Court insofar as permitting work on Saturdays. We are of the opinion that the judgment in that respect is not in conformity with the spirit of the legislation.”

“That members work the 40-hour week from midnight on Sunday continuously for five days, and overtime rates to apply after that time, and no relieving men to take the place of men stood down during the five days.” The men were unanimous that they should not be required to work broken shifts and make up lost time on that particular shift on Saturday. As a result of the combined unions decision, the Martha mine and the battery at Waikin- were idle to-day. When the men went to work this morning the interpretation of the 40hour week by the company was not accepted. Certain employees reported at the usual time for work but were not allowed to start until such time as that allotted by the company under its new adjustment of hours. Members of the union were unable to agree. Consequently all work at the mine and battery ceased to-day. The unions were not consulted in the adjustment of the new hours of work.

Statement by Company

Explaining the changes that had been made in conditions to comply with the order of the Arbitration Court, Mr R. G. Milligan,-local director and attorney of the Martha Gold Mining Company (Waihi) Limited, said that at the hearing of the Union’s application for a 40hour week the company had submitted that it was a physical impossibility to work a five day week with the existing plant without reducing the tonnage of ore handled. The Court accepted this submission and made an order permitting the same work on Saturdays as on other week days without payment of overtime. Officers of the company, said Mr Milligan, had spent three days in drawing up a rearrangement of the routine work by which men in all sections would be enabled to work a 40hour week. Although the equivalent of the former five and a half days, work would be maintained in the mine as a whole. This involved the engagement of a number of additional men as relieving hands. Every endeavour had been made to arrange the working hours as simply and conveniently as possible, but broken shifts could not be avoided. These, however, had been worked to some extent under the former system.

According to information received by the company from the Minister of Labour (Hon. H. T. Armstrong) the assistant secretary for Labour, Mr Moston, and the Hon. E. Dye will arrive at Waihi from Wellington tomorrow to discuss the cause of the stoppage with the representatives of the men. Mr Dye, when he was appointed to the Legislative Council last March, had been for a number of years president of the Ohlnemurl Mines and Batteries Union.