VALIDITY TO BE TESTED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 21, 9 February 1937, Page 6

VALIDITY TO BE TESTED

H.B. Loc^I-Body Labourer*' Agreement WELLINGTON INTENTI0N The opinjon that the recent settlement concerning general labourers on Local-body work in Hawke'a Bay would be registered and the fact that its validity would be testod wer© mentioned to a Herald-Tribune representative in Wellington by Mr p. M. Butler, secretary of tbe Wellington and District Genex'al Labourers' TJnion, yesterday, when commenting upon the agreement arrived at last week at the sitting of the Conciliation Council in Napier, "The Hawke's Bay Labourers' TJnion had no authority to entor upon such an agreement; the authority is vested infche Wellington and District General Labourers' Union," said Mr Butler. "The validity o£ the agreement will be tested by reference to the Court, I ain confident that ihe Court vriU rule that tbe Wellington union is the only union with the authority to esiter into an agreement witli the employer*. "A ruling to this effect, however, would not mean that the decisions as to wages and conditions arrived at by the. conference of representatives at the recenjb settlement would be prejudiced," he said. "I fun satisfied that the rate of wages arrived at in ihe Napier negotiations will at least be preserved, if not improved upon, by an award obtained by tbe Wellington and District General Labotirers' Union,"