FIVE PER CENT REDUCTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 143, 19 June 1931, Page 5

FIVE PER CENT REDUCTION.

OTAHUHU COUNCIL WAGES. There was a sharp division of opinion in the Otaliuliu Borough Council last evening, when the finance committee brought clown a recommendation that the salaries and wages paid to all employees, except the two women office assistants and the quarry staff, be reduced by 5 per cent; that the quarry foreman's wages be reduced to £6 3/6 (being the amount payable to the borough foreman), and that the quarry hands be reduced by 10 per cent, as the quarry had to be run on a competitive basis. Mr. Grey moved that the report be referred back to the council in committee. He said previous errors had been made, and they would be the laughing stock of the country if they passed the recommendation. The Mayor, Mr. H. T. Clements: I think we should stand by our decision. The council has already dealt with this in coaimittee. Mr. Grey: The point is that a smail majority is not a unanimous decision, and <Lat is what we should aim for. The motion, was lost by five vctes to four. Messrs. Grey, Graham, Parsons and Morgan asked that their vote bo recorded. At the close of the meeting Mr. Grey submitted a notice of motion for next meeting, "That clause 8 (dealing with the reduction) be brought up for discus6ion at the next council meeting, and that no reduction of salary recommended therein be put into operation in the meantime."