Company Says Ban Not Applicable

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31113, 16 July 1966, Page 1

Company Says Ban Not Applicable

The managing director of Masonry Services, Ltd., (Mr H. P. Oberg) yesterday said that his firm did not employ block-layers on a contract-labour basis. His firm on June 20 informed the unions concerned in writing that this accusation wAs incorrect. The correspondence had obviously been ignored.

The Canterbury district council of the Federation of Labour on Thursday evening gave its executive and disputes committee full power to act, in conjunction with its affiliates, to enforce a ban on Masonry Services, Ltd., of Christchurch, and others. Mr Oberg yesterday denied that the ban on his company by the council was in any way justified. The company, he said, confirmed that the terms and conditions of the appropriate awards were being observed. The employees of Masonry Services, Ltd., were aware that the firm did not employ any block-layers, Mr Oberg said. “So the union statement, submitted to the newspapers by the press committee of the council, is not applicable to this company,” said Mr Oberg. Mr Oberg said that till the executive of the council communicated its charges in writing or took some positive action against the company, remedial action by the company was being deferred. Council Comment The press committee of the council yesterday said that Mr Oberg knew that, regardless of whatever means by which the blocks were now being laid, the method had been altered only in recent weeks in an attempt to give a legallooking veneer to a labouronly contract in different form. “The members of the trade union movement in Canterbury under the leadership and guidance of the F.O.L. are quite determined to stamp

out this method of employing labour,” said the press committee. “When the firm can satisfy the trades council executive that block-laying is being carried out under the terms and conditions of the New Zealand bricklayers’ award, then, and only then, will the trades council be willing to lift its ban. “Till this assurance has been given, we will reserve the right to take whatever action we consider necessary to abolish labour-only concontracts. “The trades council has been heartened to receive messages offering the full support of all unions involved in the dispute, if it becomes more widespread.”