COALMINERS' WAGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 281, 25 November 1921, Page 7

COALMINERS' WAGES.

AWARD IN TEE SOUTH. NO CHANGE IN RATES. REVISION IN APRIL. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUXEDIN, Thureday. The Arbitration Court has filed five awarde, covering the Otago and Southland coal mines. The Court's memorandum states that the Court has endeavoured to apply the spirit and the general conditions of the national agreement of 1920 as far as they are applicable to the districts.

The rates of pay are fixed as nearly as poesrble on the 1914 rates, plus i>o per cent for pieceworkers and 60 per cent for timeworkere.

■'The increases provided for in the national agreement," says the Court, "appear to be based on the iood prices current in January, l!>20, when the increase, over pricee in July, 1014, Was 57.76 per cent. We have provided for alterations in the rates after April, 1022, based on the corresponding statistics.

"Thus, if in Mar<h, 1022. the increase over 1914 food prices is 47.70 _as against 57.70, the following calculations have to be made:—The increases at present being paid over the standard rate are represented by 50-15Cth s of the present piecework rates and 60-160ths of the time rates. Thus, the present piecework rate, 7/6, is made up of 5/ standard rate, and 2/6 increase. The latter •will be replaced by an amount bearing to it the ratio of 47.70 to 57.70, or 2/o}. and the new rate will be 7/01 By a similar calculation, the new time rate will be 15/.

"In order to avoid confusion, the Court has reserved power to make orders each cix months."