DISPUTE SETTLED.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 November 1922, Page 4

DISPUTE SETTLED.

HYDRO WORKERS CONTINUE. TWO MEN REINSTATED. COUNCIL’S CHANGED ATTITUDE. A stoppage of work at the New Plymouth hydro-electric undertaking has been averted. The Borough Council has decided | to reinstate the two dismissed men, and I Ihe notices given by the other 48 workers ! to cease work in sympathy with their pen- * alised colleagues have been withdrawn. Yesterday afternoon, a committee of the council, comprising the Mayor (Mr. F. E. Wilson) and Crs. F. J. Hill, J. Brown, J. Kibby, and V. Griffiths, met at the Council Chambers to consider the matter. Mr. F. J. Lyons (secretary of the General Laborers’ Union), the dismissed men, Mr. R. Peerless (resident engineer at the works), the general manager (Mr. F. T. Bellringer) and Mr. R. Day (borough inspector) were also present. The committee considered the case in all its aspects, and heard the statements of the inspector and the dismissed men, all of whom were fully questioned as to what had actually happened concerning the alleged threatening behaviour to the inspector. Mr Lyons contended that if the inspector had been threatened he should have adopted the legal remedy of hailing the men before the magistrate, and he considered the council had acted in a very arbitrary manner in sitting in judgment on the men. The men denied that they had threatened Mr. Day or that they had sought to evade the general manager when he had come on to the works to speak to them. The matter was then put to the vote of the committee as to whether they should recommend the council to reinstate the men or adhere to its resolution to dismiss them. Had the decision been in favor of reinstating the men, the decision would have come into operation at once, the council confirming the decision at its next meeting. Opinion, however, was divided on the matter, and, in accordance with the usual custom of the council in such circumstances, a special meeting of the council was called for seven last night. At this meeting of the council the Mayor again presided, and explained what had happened at the meeting in the afternoon. He outlined the case as stated by the inspector and by the men. ' It was decided that in view of the fact that the statements by both sides were directly contradictory, the whole matter should be dropped and the men reinstated.