BUREAU SYSTEM

Evening Star, Issue 23680, 13 September 1940, Page 6

BUREAU SYSTEM

INAUGURATION NEXT WEDNESDAY AWAITING RESULTS OF NEGOTIATIONS SYSTEM TO OPERATE AT BLUFF Allocation of waterfront labour under the bureau system will come into operation on Wednesday morning next —since this is the start of the week on the wharves—or, failing that, the following Wednesday, said Captain A. Rathbone (Otago and Southland wharf controller) to the ‘ Star ’ this morning. Organisation work has been finished, but some negotiations have to be completed before the system is inaugurated. Lyttelton at preesnt employs the bureau system, along with North Island ports. Within a few weeks it is also intended to begin this system at Bluff, he said. At this port the co-operative contract system has been given a successful trial on one ship. SCHEME AT TIMARU. On August 2 the co-operative system was tried at Timaru, for the first time in a South Island port. Shortly, this system is that the watersiders make a contract with the shipping company to load the cargo into the ship. The men receive their ordinary wages, and, in addition, at the end of the job there is a, bonus, the size of which is dependent on the time taken to load the ship. A co-operative party has, however, certain charges to meet, such as hire of the necessary gear. The whole idea of this new system is to get more efficient and quicker handling of ships. It gives the men doing the work an interest in it. It has already been proved that under the system there is a saving in time of 25 to 30 per cent, in dealing with the ships. This might mean all the difference between a ship getting away on a specified day and being delayed. It is hoped that the new system will lead to more efficient methods of handling on the wharves.