A WOODWORK FACTORY.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 18, 22 January 1924, Page 7

A WOODWORK FACTORY.

THE COURT'S INTERPRETATION. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondents WELLINGTON, this day. There lius been a considerable difference of opinion as to the meaning of "woodwork factories" in the Dominion award for carpenters and joiners, and as there is a different rate of pay covering "factory work," the point is an important one. To settle the point the unions and employers agreed to make a joint application to the Arbitration Court for answers to the.following questions: —(1) Are the Work-places of the manufacturing parties joined to the award "woodwork factories" within the meaning of the award? (2) What is the minimum rate of wages payable to a carpenter working in a factory other than a woodwork factory? (3) Can a worker in one employment be paid two rates of wages—one whilst engaged in a factory and another whilst engaged in fixing on a building work he has prepared in a woodwork factory? The Court's answer states that the term "factory worker" 13 intended to cover workers who work under factory conditions. It is true that the expression "woodwork factories" is used in the memorandum to the award; but it is used to illustrate the distinction between outside workers and factory workers. The award itself makes a distinction between the outside workers and factory workers which is sufficiently clear. The Court intends that workers employed in factories, whether woodwork factories or not, under factory conditions—that is, workers who do not lose time through wet weather—shall be paid at the lower rate, the higher rate being intended to compensate outside workers for the time necessarily lost by them. A factory worker employed in a joiners' shop who is sent on to a building job to assist in fixing material that he has prepared in the workshop is entitled to the higher rate while he is working outside the shop.