BAR TO ADULTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 167, 18 July 1938, Page 9

BAR TO ADULTS.

CLERICAL AWARD PAY.

STARTING AT AGE OF 21.

ASSESSOR'S CRITICISM.

"By imposing this provision the Court has effectively barred entry into clerical work to all except young lads and .girls," declared Mr. C. A: Deuxberry, one of the employers' assessors in the clerical workers' dispute, when commenting today on the provision in the new award that persons entering such work at the age of 21 or over shall be paid maximum scale rates. These are £5 10/ and £3 5/ a week for ruahj and female workers respectively.

Thus, he said, the award gave all the advantage to those who left secondary schools when about 16 and blocked those who wished ?to continue education until the age of about 18 or 19.

Mr. Deuxberry explained that previous awards made no provision for entry of persons over 20. It had been suggested in conciliation that they be engaged at startirg wages equal to the current basic wages. However, no agreement had been reached.

.Under this arrangement, he continued, employers were unlikely to give a few weeks' work at rush periods to men who are not clerks by profession. In the past these men had been very useful, but now the wages were prohibitive.

"I fail to see any justification for raising the women's scale maximum by 10/ to £3 5/ a week," said Mr. Deuxberry. Possibly, he said, the Court's decision had been, influenced by evidence that had been called to show that a y.oung woman living away from home required an income of £105 a year. The woman worker who presented the budget had admitted she had never earned more than £2- 10/ a week and that she had lived on that sum.

The new level for male workers was considerably above that of temporary clerks now employed by the Government, he continued. In hie opinion the main effect of the increases would be greater use of accounting machines in commercial offices and the employment of relatively fewer hands.