MINERS ASKED TO WORK ON HOLIDAYS

Wanganui Chronicle, 12 April 1948, Page 6

MINERS ASKED TO WORK ON HOLIDAYS

(P.A.) Dunedin, April 9 Owners and employees in the coa) mining industry have been asked by the Mines Department to work on Anzac Day and May Day holidays this year, in order to maintain production on these days. The miners are entitled to receive pay at a rate ot triple time, and if effect is given to the Government’s proposal the extra cost of ordinary time will be met by the department. The Anzac Day holiday for miners falls this year on a Sunday and May Day, also a holiday, on a Saturday. Both holidays are to be observed on the following Monday. The Mines Department has "urged' lioth parties to agree to work on these days, at the rates specified in the agreement and has indicated that it will reimburse the owners for the extra cost which the arrangements will entail. Commenting on the department s action, a Dunedin business man with an interest in the coal industry, mentioned today that a seven-hour day bad been instituted in the mines only this week. This had come at a time when the country was desperately short of its coal requirements, and it seemed a strange development that so soon after the hours of work had been reduced the department should find it necessary to ensure a continuity of supply for having work done on holidays at the taxpayers’ expense. The business man also mentioned that the announcement of the Government’s intention to urge work at triple rates on a holiday which was a substitute for Anzac Day, closely followed publication locally of a report recalling that the Minister of Labour had agreed three years ago with the contention of the New Zealand Returned Services Association that Anzac Day should be observed only on the day on which it fell, and that there should be no alternative holiday. Apparently an assurance had recently been given by the Minister to the Returned Services Association that this principle was incorporated in /practically all” awards of the Arbitration Court.