WAGES REDUCED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 287, 3 December 1932, Page 10

WAGES REDUCED.

SIXTY APPRENTICES. TWENTY PER CENT. MAGISTRATE'S DECISION. Decision in respect to a joint application! made by .13 employers for a reduction in wages of apprentices was given by Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., yesterday. The employers were represented by Mr. Anderson, and the apprentices by Messrs. Dickson and Tuck. Mr. . Price appeared for the Apprentices' Board. Mr. Cutten said the employers, representing different trades, had asked for a variation in the terms of their apprenticeship contracts, 63 apprentices being affected. At a previous hearing orders had been made reducing the rate of wages by 20 per cent where the apprenticeship contract had been entered into prior to the 10 per cent wage reduction made by the Arbitration Court, and by one-ninth where contracts were made later. All the employers except one and all the apprentices were agreeable to the reduction. One firm had asked for the. right to stand down its apprentices one week in four, in addition to the wage reduction proposal. This was opposed by _ the apprentices on the ground-that it would make an invidious distinction among employees and would give the firm an advantage over competitors. ,f m , 3m P ress ed with these objections, said the magistrate, "and I do not think the benefits to be derived by making separate orders would be commensurate with the disadvantages." He made orders in all cases reducing wages 20 per cent where the contract was made prior to June 8, 1931, and by oneninth in other cases. Balance-sheets Produced. Mr. S. E. Wright, secretary of the Employers' Association, said this morning that under rcccnt legislation magistrates were given power to review the wages of apprentices working under of the' Arbitration Court. In the original cases heard by Cutten

the whole question "was thoroughly discussed. ' Employers had given evidence and produced balance-sheets showing the necessity for some relief. The Court had made a reduction in the first cases heard. Under the general order made in June, 1931, reducing wages by 10 per cent, apprentices were exempted, but power was given to employe) s to reduce wages of apprentices .engaged after the order was made. That was the reason for wages being. reduced by 20 per cent where the contract was made prior to June 8, 1931. The decision in the first cases heard was taken as a precedent for future applications.