"INCORRECT CHARGES”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 758, 3 September 1929, Page 16

"INCORRECT CHARGES”

POWER BOARD WIREMEN COMPETENT ALLEGATIONS REFUTED “The secretary of the Auckland Electrical Trades Union has made some rather serious and incorrect statements that the board is employing men who are not properly licensed and fully competent as trouble and fuse-replacement men,” said Mr. R. H. Bartley, general manager of the Auckland Electric-Power Board, at yesterday’s meeting of the board. “Such is not the case,” Mr. Bartley contended. “The men are all licensed by the Government. There is nobody in the board’s employ engaged on such work who has not the necessary licence.” The statements had arisen following a fatality recently and allegations such as had been quoted would lead the public to think the board’s wiremen were at fault, said Mr. Bartley. Mr. W. J. Holdsworth: The union secretary should be asked to eithei' substantiate or withdraw his statements. He asked the general manager if something could not be done to warn the public against handling light leads carelessly. Mr. Bartley said the leads could be inspected periodically and condemned if found to be faulty, but the difficulty was to keep track of them. The discussion closed after Mr. Bartley presented his report upon the recent fatality at Mount Albert, upon which, he said, the allegations made by the union secretary had no bearing whatever.