"IN THE AIR."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 154, 1 July 1936, Page 10

"IN THE AIR."

CUT RESTORATION. EMPLOYERS' PROBLEMS TO-DAY'S NEW LEGISLATION. MINIMUM WAGE PROVISION. The provision contained in the re-cently-passed Factories Amendment Act and Shops and Offices Amendment Act, which sets the minimum wage at 15/ per week, came into effect to-day. That is definite. The further question as to when and how other industrial legislation passed, or to be passed, will affect employers and workers is indefinite. Employers know that in addition to being called upon to pay a minmuiu wage of 15/ the restoration of the "cuts" is to apply as from July 1, but the required legislation to put this into effect is "in the air." The 40-hour week, although now law, does not operate until September 1, and for the time being the hours comprising a week's work which have obtained up to the present will continue to apply. In odd pases' there may be a factory, office or shop where the employer will introduce a shorter working Week, or perhaps no work on Saturdays, but that will be a concession on his part and not the result of any new legislation. In September next employers will have no choice; legislation passed, or an award of the Arbitration Court, will fix the hours, and these will have to be observed. Employers generally are uncertain as to the obligations which recent legislation imposes upon them, but at the moment the only vital matter to be complied with is the payment of a minimum wage to all employees of factories, shops or offices. But even this is not easy to arrive at. The minimum wage that can be paid is, from to-day, 15/ a week, with half-yearly rises of not less than 4/ per week until the end of the third year, when a minimum wage of £2 must be paid.

However, in arriving at the rate payable, and this is important, the employer must take into account the previous experience of any of his employees in any factory, shop or office, as the cast, might be. To quote an instance: Take an office where a typist has .been employed twelve months, but who has hnd two years' previous experience in another office. That typist lias had three years' experience and must therefore Ije paid not less than £2. A shop assistant may have been twelve months with his or her present employer, but may have had six months' previous experience in another shop. The wage to be paid in that cast would be not less than 19/. Higher Scale. The Shops and Offices Act for the first time fixes a minimum wage scale for employees. Occupiers of factories and shops where awards apply are quite accustomed to a wages scale, and the only difference now is that the new legislation has fixed a higher scale and introduced half-yearly instead of annual. offi ceS were not previously under the wages scale but they are under it now. • The second item whicfe.to'day marks in the new industrial legislation is the "cut" ■ restoration. The Prime Minister, the Right Hon. M. J. Savage, has announced that legislation restoring wages to the 1931 level.will definitely be passed next session and will be made retrospective as from July 1. In many industries and other avenues of employment there has been restoration, but in the majority of cases where awards or agreements are operating restoration has not been made. The secretaries of the Employers' Association and Manufacturers' Association, two bodies which deal with a large number of workers' have advised their associations to defer returning to the 1931 wage level until the proposed legislation is actually passed, and it is understood that the employers will act on this advice and set aside a reserve fund to cover the increase and to provide for its retrospective payment.

Manufacturers have also been advised to increase their costing to cover the estimated increase in wages which they will be called upon to pay, and it is suggested that the amount added to present costing should be at least 10 per cent. This morning the Labour Department's officers were inundated with questions relating to the legislation which became operative to-<lay. It was explained that the main provision to be complied with was the payment as from to-day of wages according to the new ecale and based on a 15/ a week minimum. Until there was a decision by the Arbitration Court or further legislation much of tho Government's proposals was indefinite. For instance, the Department could not say until a basic wage pronouncement was made by the Arbitration Court whether the basic' wage would apply to all adult workers over 21 years of age, or whether the age had •till to be fixed, or define the position of intermittent workers such as waterside workers and others in seasonal occupations who sometimes work perhaps only three or four days a week. , .