COMPULSORY MEMBERSHIP

Opotiki News, Volume X, Issue 1047, 18 November 1947, Page 2

COMPULSORY MEMBERSHIP

P. AND T. EMPLOYEES BAY MEMBER’S OBJECTIONS Strong objection to a provision in the Post and Telegraph employees in the P. and T. Employees’ Association and Officers .Guild was voiced by Mr. W. Sullivan (Nation, Bay of'Plenty), during the second reading debate on the Bill in the House of Representatives. “Will the Minister give the 15,000 employees of the Post and Telegraph Department the right to decide for themselves by a secret ballot whether they want compulsion or not l” he asked. “I would venture to say that if the Minister did ;that| H.hitf 'Bill would not go through.

Only recently w.c passed legislation providing that before a strike is held a secret ballot must be taken. Surely it .is fair and just to give these people an opportunity to conduct a secret ballot inside their own department on. the question of whether they will have compulsory unionism imposed on them. The whole thing is utterly wrong and should be opposed wholeheartedly in every way possible by every (one of /us who stands for the democratic way of life in this country and in the Empire.”

“During the l war when those people were called upon to work overtime and to undertake all sorts of additional duties, how were they treated in. the matter of overtime payments 1 As far as I know ordinary rates were extended to the extra hours of work, although the Government had laid it down that every other employer had to pay time and a half and double time for hours worked in excess of -10 a week. When it comes to dealing with its own employees in this department the Government made no recognition of the fact above ordinary rates. The Government has treated them in a niggardly fashion, and I shall oppose this Bill entirely, for it is just another imposition on those people, and they are not being consulted about it.

If the Prime Minister declare! that we arc following a truly dem

ocratic form of Government in New Zealand, I appeal to him and his colleagues to give the workers of the P. and T. Department the right to decide this thing for themselves and to decide it by a secret ballot. If the workers then say that they desired this system of compulsion, we shall have no complaint.”

By 37 votes to 32, the House rejected an Opposition amendment to the Bill designed to ensure that no member of the P, and T. Asso ciation should be required to contribute towards the funds of any political party unless lie had a greed in writing to do so.