INADEQUATE TIME

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19980, 4 July 1939, Page 7

INADEQUATE TIME

DISPUTES COMMITTEE EMPLOYERS’’ ANSWER (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. _ Replying to Mr. ‘J. Parlane, president of the Drivers’ Federation, Mr. H. f. Knight, secretary of the New Zealand Carriers’ Federation and the New Zealand Road Transport Alliance, says that the Auckland union officials came to Wellington, not to meet the disputes committee, as -such a meeting could not be arranged in the time, but to state the Auckland union’s complaints. The Auckland union had instituted an action by the Labour Department in respect to the case mentioned by Mr. Parlane, the ruling given proving that overtime was not payable as Mr. Parlane had stated.

In three years no disputes committee had been invoked by the union on any case whatever, and it seemed unreasonable that less than a day's notice should toe given by the union when one is demanded. The employers were still prepared, as they had always been, to confer with the union’s officials with a view to an amicable settlement of any alleged grievances and this, despite the disproportionate amount of time that had been demanded of them for this very purpose during the past year and also despite the fact that it was clearly shown at Friday’s meeting that in each of the cases complained of there had been strict compliance with the award on the part of the employers. /‘The employers are appreciative of their responsibilities under the I.C. and A. Act and the drivers’ award, and have no intention moreover of departing from the constitutional procedure. If the unions will’ act similarly, no troubles need arise as any that do will obviously be of their own making.”