MANPOWER APPEAL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 68, 28 April 1944, Page 5

MANPOWER APPEAL

further paper mills case

MANAGEMENT OVER-RIDDEN

EMPLOYEES PLAINT UPHELD

The question of whether or not it was possible within an essential industry to remove an unqualifiedi man from »,one department to another (without reduction of pay, though with a • certain aspect of moral! deratement), was the main issue in the appeal by the Whakatane Paper Mills for variation of the Manpower Officers ruling that J. Whitehead could not. be removed from his present occupation as greaser in the Power House and! posted' to the fitters shop. The hearing took, place in the Whakatane Borough Council last week before the Industrial Manpower Committee. For the appellants, Mr J. W. [Wright said the management of the 3Paper Mills were appealing against jthe decision of the Manpower Offi- • cer who had denied the company the right to" alter the working status of (the employee Whitehead. The com-. ; pany in its power plant had ex- . pended no less than filSO 4 , 000, and ; as a result had now a unit, which generated five times the power used i>y the whole of. the Borough of (Whakatane. It could develop 3125 'K.V.A., the equivalent of 3360 li..p, . and consumed no less than 655 tons •of coal per week. The maintenance care of such a powerful plant therefore placed a heavy responsibility upon the company and. it had been decided to encourage all men working in the power house to be (holders of at least the second class -engineers certificate. Besides the -qualified engineers whose duty it was to control the whole mill plant there were also employed three fire-v-jnen and three greasers. The Bremen were qualified of necessity and of ■ the greasers, two' held second class 'tickets and the third. Whitehead, iheld none . Making for Efficiency In order to 1 give the engineers freedom to move about the mill and supervise the machinery it was decided to have all men employed in the power house qualified, thus enabling a certificated man airways to be on duty. Whitehead was approached to study for his second class ticket and though be at first agreed he later informed the .management that he had. no intention of carrying it out. The com;pany had another certificated "man who was keen for advancement, and It was therefore proposed to transfer Whitehead to the litters shop, at no.reduction in pay and replace him with the employee who> was -qualified. Mr Wright contended that Whitehead by his action, was standling in the way ot a progressive move by the company and that the .Manpower Officer by his ruling killed all incentive on the part of th« -engineers to improve themselves by .gaining greater knowledge. Engineers Evidence Mr F. R. Coombes, Supervisory Engineer, gave more technical .details as to the reasons making it . necessary to have only certificated men working in the plant. The idea was to have all firemen, first class -engineers and all greasers second class. As Whitehead had refused to study for his' second class, it wa ■ considered only logical to replace him by a man who was the holder of the necessary knowledge. As a greaser Whitehead had given satisfactory service, but as a holder of a certificate he would be. doubly - qualified to accejit responsibility and also to improve his position. To Mr Barry he admitted that it was not. essential that a greaser should be the holder of an engineers certificate, nor did he receive any financial consideration should he become the holder. He admitted also that the shift engineers were not away for any great length of time and also that over the 3% years that Whitehead had been employed he had heard no: complaints against him. The chairman (Mr J. O. Liddell to witness): Have you ever found out during the past. 3V 2 years that the fact that Whitehead has had no •-certificate was detrimental to the running of. the Milli? Witness: If this scheme had been working it would have saved a lot -of time during shut-downs. The chief engineer, Mr. J. Corbett, said the idea of having only -qualified men employed was to en r .able all their engineer officers to put their finger on a fault at once without reference to a higher man. The ticket could be earned by correspondence course and was not particularly difficult. He admitted that he had not discussed the scheme •with the engineering staff. (Continued in next column)

To Mr Barry he also agreed that it had never been a condition of Whitehead's engagement that he should be a holder of a second class ticket. Mr Liddell: You are asking a man to take on an examination at,his owu expense, to improve the efficiency of your Mill. Would he, if he. succeeded, secure extra remuneration? Witness: I couldn't answer for that Sir. Mr Liddell: Are the qualified men now drawing more than those who are not?! Witness: No. Mr Corbett then explained that the machinery at the Mill was getting older and faced wi'th the difficulty of getting replace- ' merits, it was now necessary to nurse it as much as possible. That was the main reason for having only qualified' men on the job. Employees Case For the employee, Whitehead, Mr Barry said that it appeared that the company wished to employ him first as a greaser and then, without any increase in pay, after getting a ticket at his' own expense to employ him again in a capacity to save expense and to make for -the more efficient running of the plant. Not on any occasion could the engineers giving evidence, show that the en-* gineer on shift had to leave the power house at any time in answer to emergency calls. For 3% years the Mill had been run satisfactorily and now at. this late hour the management decided to derate a man who had given loyal service, merely because he did not hold a certificate. In evidence Jack H. Whitehead said that he had been veiling to study for his engineer's ticket and actually started on the "course, but the theoratical side which covered much, which was quite apart from his job, got beyond him and he decided to drop it. He objected to the change in jobs as he considered it would reduce his pay. His earnings at present with overtime would be much greater than what he considered lie could earn in the. fitters shop. Same Basis of Pay Mr Wright claimed that the rate of pay were practically identical, though one was on a 4.0 hour weelc and one on 44. The chairman then observed that taking both jobs on the basic wage basis, it was obvious that Whitehead would lose by the change-over; Continuing witness said that, he objected to the transfer because he considered it a reduction in status, and he also considered himself competent to do the job which he had been doing consistently for the past 3y 2 years. The hearing was then adjourned, the committee reserving its decision. Notification was received by the contesting parties' last Wednesday that the committee had' decided to uphold the Manpower Officer in his decision and to dismiss the information brought by the Company.