BUREAU SYSTEM FOR WATERSIDERS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 34, 3 November 1937, Page 6

BUREAU SYSTEM FOR WATERSIDERS

Proposed Introduction at .Napier ; — . .# CONFERENCE SITTING ^ . • Discussions; to discover the hest method for the operation of a ■ bureau system' in the employment of watersidelaboUr ftt Napier are. at present inprogress between representatives of the Napier Waterside Workers' ITnion and of the shipping companies. To-day is the third day of the' discussion, .which has heen mainly confined to the reviewing of the different systems in operation at other ; New Zealand ports, with the objeot of discovering that most suitable for introduction in Napier. ' - The present eystem of engaging labour is - quite - haph azard , and dn slack times,' when' the full quota.of union labour offering Is :> not. reqiredj often results in an unequal distribution of the" work. It frequently happens that while some men;m.ay be engaged in work alltbrough a week, others may have none at all, and the operation of the" bureau '- system, -in its jnost common form, of-' fers work in .rotation. Under the bureau system, if 1%. •- . are engaged in work .at the first call of labour in tlie morning, and have finished their tasks hy .the time a seo. ond call is.made, thd^ are not eligible to be employed again until'the remain-. der 6f those who have no.t been offered work hawe been placed. Usually a huge: notice-board- is placed in a central posi---tion on the. waterfront- and, . a - a watersiddr is engaged,, his discris re-*, moved from the board, th'us "showing. the number. ,ofi men still* availaltle lorwork. . . . A system -in ;vpgue it Auclnand. di-. vides the .m'en jnto: rt-wp , caligorks Those classedjas.'A grade workers are gi aianteed : wofk ,to the valuo , oi« x"2. I1}/ a week, and if their. wages do not. an cunt to this. sthu/'it "is niade- up.*.