STEWARDS’ EARNINGS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 134, 19 March 1931, Page 6

STEWARDS’ EARNINGS.

STATEMENT IN THE COURT.

OPPOSITION TO AN INCREASE. : - v - • > V- y ... (Per Press Association). WELLINGTON, This Day. The Arbitration Court is hearing a dispute affecting cooks and stewards in theJemploy of coastal shipping companies*.; The Union asks for increased pay of approximately 15 per cent., and the companies’ counter-proposal is lor pay about the same. Mr Bishop (representing the employers) said that wages since 1914 had been increased by about 60 per cent., but the actual earnings nearly 150, because of the alterations in the conditions of work. He said: “We find assistant stewards drawing from £204 to, in one extreme case, £4OO a year, plus their keep, and stewards and cooks - £275, £334, £375, £368, £415 and £531 per annum plus keep. Is it any wonder that in the face of these figures there is an outcry against the cost of transport and other sheltered industries in New Zealand?” He asked, where was our sense of proportion. It was time we faced the facts fairly and honestly. The disparity between the earnings of those workers producing for export and those in sheltered industries must be removed. “Here is perhaps the most glaring example of that disparity to be , found in the whole Dominion. We confidently ask the Court .to correct it,said Mr Bishop.