FREEZING INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 289, 5 December 1936, Page 7

FREEZING INDUSTRY.

NEW AWARD FRAMED. WAGES AND CONDITIONS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Friday. A new award for freezing works employees was announced to-day by the Arbitration Court. It applies to the Northern, Taranaki, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Canterbury, Otago and Southland industrial districts. The award specifies that the ordinary hours of work shall be eight daily, including "smoke-ohs," between 7.30 a.m. and 5 p.m. on five days of the week, and four hours, including "smoke-ohs," between 7.30 a.m. and noon on Saturdays. Overtime is- to be at the rate of time and a half for the first six hours, and then double time. Waiting-time rates are 2/6 an hour for piece-workers, and 3/ an hour for slaughtermen. The wages prescribed for chain system slaughtering are 3/ au hour, and foiling system slaughtering, not less than 3/ an hour. Ordinary piecework rates are £2 a 100 for sheep, £ 1 17/0 for lambs, and £2 0/ for show sheep and lambs. Mr. A. L. Monteitli, the employees' assessor, delivered a dissenting judgment, in which he said: —"I am not in agreement with the wage rate awarded to hourly workers. The minimum rate should, in my opinion, be at least 2d higher. Prior to the 40-liour week, when labourers got 1/10, these workers were awarded 2/1. To-day tlie rate of the general labourer is 2/OJ, and these workers are still on 2/1. "These workers have lost their placfe in the wage-scale when compared with others. The work is both seasonal and casual, and loss on account of these circumstances is a serious matter to the workers."