No Agreement Over Award For Carpenters

Chronicle (Levin), 4 February 1949, Page 5

No Agreement Over Award For Carpenters

WELLINGTON, Feb. 3. No settlement had been reached when the conferenc among all parties to the New Zealand carpenters' and joiners' award, concluded today. The employers and union representatives , met at the request of the Minister of Labour, Mr. AlcLagan, to discuss points in thc award recently issued by the Coiirt of Arbitration, with which the union had expressed dissatisfaption. Announeing failure to reach an agreement, Mr. S. G. Shearer, presideut of the New Zealand Builders' and •Jontractors ' Union of Employers, said rliat the union had elaiined that the :ourt had been unreasonable on four points— wages, the suburban work •dause, exemptions from the suburban work clause, and retrospective pay. "The attiture of the builders and other employers of carpenters, is now as ahvays, to abide by the decision of the Arbitration Court, the highest" industrial tribunal in the land, ' ' he said. ' ' If the decision of the court as the result of protracted argument presented to if over several days, had as in the pa'st. been detrimental to the employers' interests, such a decision would have been accepted with good grace by the employers. Why then should represen tatives of the union take up the, attitude they do? A statement made by one of the union representatives may be taken as typical — 'we place full responsibility on the employers for any industrial unrest.' "