DAIRY WORKERS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 34, 19 November 1937, Page 2

DAIRY WORKERS

ALLEGATION TO PARLIAMENT. COST OF OVER £1,000,000 ESTIMATED. (Per Press Association.) ; AUCKLAND, November 18. ' Further evidence was called to-day by Mr W. E. Anderson, secretary to ( the Employers’ Association, in connec- , tion with the dairy workers’ applica- ' tion for a Dominion award. ' Forbes Herbert Anderson (director . of tlio Cambridge Dairy Factory and . chairman of the Auckland Employers’ Association) said the demands of the i Union were assessed at approximately ; £1,006,000. At present the employing > farmer had allotted to him under the 1 guaranteed price an average income of • £4 a week plus a free house. That was 1 not a. guaranteed income but could be ■ attained only under favourable condi- ' tions and by working long hours. Com- ! pared with the present position of a | first assistant in a factory with a wage of £5 3s 6d, the dairy farmer was not . so favourably situated. The dairy farm- [ ers’ reward under the guaranteed price was what remained after meeting main- ; tenance and interest charges on the i farm and any increase in costs, whether : wages or not, had to come out of that ■ reward. “We submit that the dairy industry is unable to meet the increased demands,” said witness, “and cannot see why it should have to, considering that the Government has collaborated in fixing the wages of farm em- , ployees for this season at £2 ss, plus 17s 6d, making £3 2s 6d a week for employees quite as capable as general hands in dairy factories.” “I am not going to take any notice of this guaranteed price or the negotiations between the farmers and the Government,” said Mr Roberts, on rising to cross-ekamine. After many questions about costs, Mr Roberts asked whether the wages paid to factory hands over the year were less than the basic wage. “I suppose they are” replied witness. William Yates Kirkman (factory superintendent for the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company at Hamilton) produced figures showing the increase in wages costs as percentage and in money in various departments. Should the Union’s claims be acceded to, the increases were: Butter 102.25 per cent or £113,502; cheese, 176.25 per cent, or £66,169; milk powder, 95.3 per cent, or £19,073 ; condensed milk, 105.1 per cent, or £6590 (one factory); casein for drying station, 88.94 per cent or £10,811; casein creameries, £14,912. Witness added that the Dominion increase in the wages bill for Dominion butter and cheese factories, compared with the 1935-36 season, would be £1,001,746. Herbert Edward Pacey (managing director of Glaxo Laboratories (N.Z.) Limited and chairman of directors of the New Zealand Casein Company, Limited, expressed the opinion that the Court should consider the precarious position of the casein industry. The returns to producers from this source had in the past varied to an abnormal extent. “The increased costs of manufacturing, the larger differential allowed in favour of cheese over butter and the collapse of the Japanese market will deplete the returns to an extent which will seriously menace ttye casein industry,” witness said. The German market bad also declined to a marked degree. “There are in New Zealand to-day 35 casein precipitating stations,” witness continued. “I say with a full sense of responsibility that if the present demands are acceded, to many of these will cease casein precipitation. Indeed, even on to-day’s wages costs, some of these factories will be confronted with difficulty.” Witness said the present system of classification worked admirably. It had been in operation for many years and he saw no reason for it being altered.