NO INCREASE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLIV, Issue 9876, 25 July 1923, Page 5

NO INCREASE

PAY OF SKILLED WORKERS' = THE COURT’S DECISION. ; Trade unionists are keenly interested ( in the latest decision of the Arbitra- | tkm €ool^. “The pay of skilled workers is not ‘to be increased, ’ said a Union .official yesterday moaning. “That is perfectly clean from the terms of the Dominion award under which carpenters and joiners will now be employed VVe j have been waiting for a. pronounce- j ment on the point for some consider*- \ able time, as it has been contended..! that there is not enough difference be- !- tween the standard set for skilled workers in New Zealand and the standard set for unskilled workers. Here it is 15 .per cent. In America, it is as much as 100 per cent. j “The decision means that there will J he a falling off in ' Arbitration Court j litigation. Members of other skilled J trades unions, seeing that the carpenters failed to obtain a rise, will not be keen to go to the Court in future. However, we are in a very peculiar | position in this country. The great majority of skilled workers are receiving more than the Arbitration Court wage. That wage is regarded as the minimum, as it should be—a change which lias only taken place in the last few years. Carpenters, for instance, receive 2s 6d an hour instead of 2s lfd. “The reason for this is the shortage of skilled workers, a shortage tttec tends to increase. Boys are loth To put up with the restrictions of an apprenticeship. Consequently, they go to swell she ranks of the l unskilled, and the men who have knowledge of t trade can get almost any wage they | like. It will, therefore, be seen that the Court’s decision will not lower production .cost, such as in housebuilding. The wages of carpenters are a matter of supply and demand. “The Court has already expressed the opinion that there is not a- wide enough margin between the wage of the skilled man and the wage of the unskilled man. It will now be interesting to see whether it will proceed to lower the rate fixed for the unskilled. In that direction, however, there is an obstacle—the fail" living wage regarded by the Court as about £3 17« a week. It cannot go below , that.

“Anyway the whole wage position in New Zealand has some curious features. Particularly beneficial to the worker is the increasing acceptance of the award rate as the bare- minimum, not as the maximum.”