TO SUFFER PENALTY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21198, 22 August 1940, Page 9

TO SUFFER PENALTY

WATERFRONT OFFENDERS

r i REPLY GIVEN IN HOUSE \ ] i i (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) WELLINGTON, Wednesday ; “The commission will enforce a penalty against all the men concerned in the cessation of work,” said the [Minister of Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb, in replying in the House of Representatives today to an urgent question asked by Mr F. W. Doidge (Opposition—Tauranga) concerning the dismissal last week of 140 waterside workers who refused to continue the unloading of the Waiana at I Auckland. Mr Doidge. after describing the occurrence, asked whether the action ( of the Waterfront Commissioner in ] ordering the original gangs to carry y on was not a departure from the « bureau rules, which laid down that r men refusing to work should be ] penalised for the length of the job, in this case until August 24. He also asked what steps the Government , intended to take to prevent further ■ trouble of the same kind in wartime. \ Mr Webb said that the first 70 1 men should have been engaged for « the ship for a particular hatch, and 1 not as crane or ship’s gear gangs. < However, the failure to engage in ;

the terms of the order provided no justification for the cessation of work by the men, which in itself constituted a breach. “In respect of the bureau rules mentioned, the commission has legislative and administrative authority,” Mr Webb added. “Consequently it cannot be bound by bureau rules made by either or both the parties in the industry as to what penalties are to be inflicted for a breach of its orders.”