DOING TOO MUCH WORK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19347, 29 June 1925, Page 9

DOING TOO MUCH WORK

A WATERSTDERS’ ERROR OF JUDGMENT STRUCK OFF UNION’S BOOKS CLAIMS £lOOO DAMAGES MELBOURNE, June 27. A case with an important bearing on the question of whether unions are entitled to inflict penalties on members for alleged disobedience of the rules is proceeding. | F. Phillips is seeking to recover ; £lOOO damages from the Workers’ ■ Federation of Australia and the Wharf | Labourers’ Union, of which he is a member, on the ground that the two I bodies mentioned wrongfully refused to recognise him as a member, whereby he i lost his employment. : Phillips’ case, is that in February of I last year he was helping to unload I sugar from a steamer when the foreman called him down a hatch to fill up the slings. He obeyed the order. The Union’s vigilance officer thereupon came along and called down the hold: “Stop that game. You are putting too much on the slings.” Phillips was subsequently fined 10s by the union for an alleged breach of the rules. He denied liability and wmconsequently set aside as unfinancial. He could get no work except small jobs, and was unable to join any other union without a financial clearance.