TOO SMALL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 172, 22 July 1936, Page 8

TOO SMALL.

MARGIN OF PRICE.

MILKMEN'S WEEK.

FORTY-HOURS QUESTION. .DEFERRED BY ARBITRATION COURT. In the opinion of the Arbitration Court the present margin fixed by the Auckland Milk Council between the price payable to the farmers foi' milk in bulk, and the price chargeable to the public on distribution, is insufficient to enable the employers to carry 011 efficiently on a 40-hour week. In a judgment delivered by the Court yesterday it was stated that such a margin would require to be increased before a 40-hour week could be ordered, and in consequence the application was adjourned.

The judgment was given following an application on behalf of four occupiers of milk pasteurising and distributing depots for an extension to 44 hours of the weekly hours of work fixed by the Factories Amendment Act, 193 G. The application concerned milk roundsmen and those* depots that receive, pasteurise and distribute milk in the fitv of Auckland.

The Court stated that further consideration of the case would he adjourned until August 24, so that the Auckland Milk Council and others interested might, if they deemed it desirable, go into the question of prices. If and when this was done the application would lw given further consideration.

The Court explained that cases relating to the men that worked in the depots, and those relating to the roundsmen, were iieard separately, for the reason that the different men were covered by different awards, but as the whole of the operations were carried out by each employer, who had applied for extension of hours, the Court dealt with both classes in ths judgment. Not Dairy Factories. The Court dismissed a v preliminary point raised in the course of the hearing, concerning the question whether the factories of the employers might be regarded as dairy factories, which wars exempt from the 40-hour week. "The main and dominant activity of these employers is, we think, that of distributors of milk and cream. 'Webster's Dictionary' defines a dairy as 'the place, room or house where milk is kept and converted into butter and cheese.' We do not think that the various premisein question are dairy factories."

In so far as the separator room in tuc premises of the applicants was concerned the Court thought it might be termed a - creamery, and any male workers employed exclusively therein would be exempted from the limits ol Uie working hours fixed by the Factories Act. The remainder of the factory was not, in the Court's opinion, a creamery. Increase in Costs. "We are of the opinion," stated the judgment, "that, in so far as the mechanical operations incidental to this industry are concerned it is practicable to carry them on efficiently on a 40-liour week, both as to workers in the depots and as to roundsmen. But it is manifest that such reduction of the working hours must entail the employment of additional labour, with a consequent increase in working costs." The judgment points out that the prices to be paid for milk to dairy farmers by the distributing firms, and the prices to be charged to the public, to whom the milk is distributed, were controlled by the Auckland Milk Council, and the present prices were fixed a few months ago. The workers in the industry at present work a 48-hour week, spread over seven days.

At the hearing in Wellington Mr. J. P. John appeared for the depot workers, Mr. J. Purtell for the roundsmen, and Mr. W. E. lAnderson for the employers.