TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 235, 1 October 1920, Page 7

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By INDUSTBIAL TRAMP.) UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. This Evening, October I—Sallmakers. Monday, October 4—Shipwrights, Tailors, Drivers. Tuesday. October s—Plumbers. Wednesday, October 6—General Labourers. Thursday, October 7—Ferry Employees, Electricians. Moulders, Liftmen. DAYLIGHT BAKIXG. The question of daylight baking, or the abolition of night baking, h»._ occupied the attention of the bakers of the Dominion for many years past, but they have never succeeded in attaining the abolition of night baking. The unions contend that the pernicious custom of requiring men to work in the "wee sma' hours ayont the twal" for the purpose of ministering to the appetite of the customer who persists in eating new made bread to the detriment of his digestive organs, should be abolished in New Zealand, as is the case in New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland.- and Great Britain. A month or so ago, lovers of the fresh bread dietery in the Dominion received a rude shock from perusing a paragraph to the effect that the Government, for the purpose of conserving- stocks of flour, proposed to introduce legislation to render illegal the sale of bread under twenty-four hours old, but this was contradicted later. As far back as 1012 the Dominion Bakers' Unions argued the matter before the Arbitration Court with Mr. Justice Sim as president, but the utmost they secured was an award in which 4 a.m. was the hour fixed for starting work in the bakehouse, but "any journeyman required to start work earlier thanthe hours hereinbefore mentioned shall be paid 5/ per week in addition to the minimum wage rixed by this award." It was hoped that the extra payment would go far to secure more daylight baking, but the man with the appetite for fresh bread conquered, with the result that the impost was paid | cheerfully by the employers. Year after year the bakers returned to the attack, and on October 15 there is to be a Dominion conference at Wellington on the question of the prohibition of night baking. Tlie Arbitration Court has intimated its inability to deal with the matter, and has suggested legislative action on several occasions. At the conference each union in the Dominion will be represented by two delegates, and the present intention is to draft a bill dealing with the question, and ask the Government to take it up. Messrs. E J Watson and O. J. Veale (secretary) will represent the Auckland Bakers and Pastrycooks' Union. AUCKLAND HARDWARE DISPUTE. This dispute, which has been before the public from time to time during the past few months, emerged from the Conciliation Council last Tuesday as a complete settlement, and on Thursday the Court of Arbitration made it into an award. The particulars of settlement „aye already appeared in our columns,: but it is just as well for hardware merchants and ironmongers to remember that the new provisions came into operation to -ay (October 1). From now on female labour in hardware shops will have to be paid for at the "same rate as male labour, for by agreement both employers and the workers' union have adopted as .their motto "Equal work for equal pay." It may be noted that the dispute opened with distrust and suspicion of each other by both side?, but as it proceeded a better feeling was generated, and the result was that instead of having to light the matter out before the Court of Arbitration, leaving, perhaps, bitter feelings and resentment in its wake, a settlement on all pointwas arrived at, including the preference clause, which is usually opposed by employers ''on principle. 1 'Some of the firms for" years past have been giving their employees a fortnight's holiday on full ' pay, others have closed down at Christmas and New Year for ten days on full pay. Many firms have paid their workers | when off through bona fide illness, and although the award only provides for i "one week's continuous holiday on full pay in each year of service.'' the employers' assessors on this dispute have openly expressed their desire and intention "of continuing that custom. Such a feeling gives tlie union, which starts on its first award with 170 members, a good push off, and new members are already coming in that have abandoned a most uncomfortable at*itudo on the topmost rail, until they felt assured of the direction in which the cat would jump. "SMOKE-OH." ' The Clerk of Awards In ChristcliUTCh has received the judgment of the Arbitration C_ourt in regard to the question of payment for "snloke-oh" time arisin*? out of the shearers' award. The question referred to the Court for an interpretation was: "Are shed hands who are paid by the hour entitled to receive payment for the time work is suspended in woolsheds for 'smoke-ohs.'?" After traversing the practice in other awards, the judgment states that if it had been intended that hourly workers should be paid for time off it should have been expressly, stated. As there is no well-established custom governing' the case, the Court is of opinion that the question referred to it should be answered in the negative. In a note to the judgment the Court adds that as the hourly workers have to a certain extent to keep pace with the shearers who are on piece-work, it appears to the Court that it would have "been fair and reasonable to -have made

provision for a morning and afternoon "smoke-ohs" of, say, 10 minutes, without any deduction of time therefrom. The practice followed is for the shed manager and the shearers' representative to arrange for "smoke-ohs" at the commencement of the season.

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