HOURS AND WAGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 207, 2 September 1936, Page 8

HOURS AND WAGES.

BUTTER INDUSTRIES.

ARGUMENT OVER AWARD.

ARBITRATION PROCEEDINGS. A new award was sought in the Arbitration Court this morning by the Auckland Creameries' Cheese and Butter Factories Employees' Industrial Union of Workers. An application by the employers for an extension of hours under the Factories Amendment Act for certain female workers was also set down for hearing. Mr. W. E. Anderson appeared for the employers, and Mr. J. P. John for the union. Clauses not agreed upon in conciliation council proceedings related to hours of work, wages (except a sub-clause relating to engineers, metal workers' assistants, tinsmiths, canister makers, and motor and horse drivers), meal times, casual labour, overtime, holidays, and piecework. Mr. John, in outlining the case, said dairy factory workers were poorly paid in comparison with other industries. The highest wage paid under tho present award was £5 3/0 for a first assistant, whoso hours in a butter factory had been 56, and in a clieeae factory, where for some time past there had been no limit of hours, CO or 70. The first assistant was a highly-skilled worker, and five years was taken in his training. He was responsible for the quality and standard of the cheese manufactured. General hands received £4 1/ a week, proportion of Youths. When the long hours were taken into account the butter and cheese workers were the lowest paid in any award, Mr. John continued. Some of the wages worked out at 1/54 and 1/3 an hour, which was a poor recompense for the disabilities of seasonal occupation. Mr. John submitted a calculation, based on tho balance-sheet of a company, showing that the .wages cost of the manufacture of butter was only l-5d per lb. The union asked that tile proportion of youths be not more than one to four adults. Meal time of half an hour, without deduction in pay, was sought for workers starting before 0 a.m. and working 0 p.m. Overtime for cheese pressors Was desired at the rate of 1/ a press a week, as against Gd in tho 1931 award. Annual holidays of three weeks was asked for cheese factory workers, as compensation for the longer hours in that branch than in the butter section. Evidence on the lines of Mr. John's submissions was given by Stanley Wal-lace-Low, Waiuku branch of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Limited, William James McGibon, and other witnesses. On the application of Mr. Anderson it was agreed to strike out during the currency of tho award an application to add as" a partv tho New Zealand Cooperative Herd Testing Association. ' Case for Employers Mr Anderson, in opposing the union s demand, said costs had increased by 47.3 per cent for butter factories and 32.2 per cent for cheese factories. These figures had been carefully computed, and included the extra costs involved by the restoration of the 1931 scale of wages, the reduction of hours, from 5(5 to 48 a week for butter workers and from GO to 52 for cheese workers, and extra payments under the Factories Act for holidays, half-holidays and Sundays. The employers strongly urged that the Court should settle the dispute on the basis of the 1929 award. Evidence was given on behalf of the employers. Mr. John, in summing up the case for the union, said quite a large number of the men attended the Massey College at their own expense, seeking to improve their knowledge in an endeavour to be ; of more service and value to the industry. "We consider that the best interests of the dairy industry will be : served by maintaining a high standard of efficiency and intelligence of the workers engaged in this important industry, sufficient to meet the various stages of manufacture, and this can only ! be attained by maintaining the wages and conditions of these workers on a parity with those ruling iii other industries." (Proceeding.)