NEW BENEFITS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 224, 22 September 1938, Page 12

NEW BENEFITS.

MILK ROUNDSMEN.

WAGES AND HOLIDAYS.

PRICE CHANCE UNLIKELY.

From next Monday until March 31. 1040. milk roundsmen working within a radius of 20 miles from Auckland will enjoy a 4/ increase in wages and an extra week's paid holiday. These ad<lcd benefitis are the two material changes made under a new award issued to-day bv the Arbitration Court.

It is not expected that these Improvements in the conditions of the roundsmen will result in any increase in the prices of milk and cream charged to the public. About 200 members of the Auckland Dairy Employees' Union are affected.

The principal clauses referred to the Court were those relating to wages, holidays, limitation of work and gallonage and the term of the award. A flight alteration —other than the increase in wages from £4 IS/ to £5— has been made under the hours of work and wages clause to preserve the rights of small employers.

This change, says the Court, while maintaining the rate of pay for the worker, allows more overtime to be worked. The clause now reads as follows:—

"The ordinary hours of work shall not exceed 88 per fortnight, 80 hours of which shall be worked on 10 days of the fortnight, and shall be paid for at the rate of £5 per week. The remaining hours up to eight hours, if worked, shall be paid for at the rate of 3/9 per hour."

The second important feature of the award is the granting to each worker of two weeks' annual holiday on the full minimum wage.

The new award, said the secretary of the union, Mr. James Purtell, to-day, represented the results of 20 years' efforts in presenting various cases to the Arbitration Court. Taking into account the improved arrangement in respect to hours of work, which had been first obtained several months ago, the award represented a tremendous step forward in comparison with those in operation before legislation permitted workers to apply for a 40-hour week.

The position in short was that milk roundsmen were now entitled to a 10day working fortnight and a fortnight's paid annual holiday. All this had been achieved by an increase of one halfpenny a quart to the public in the price of milk, an increase that had been imposed when the last award was obtained over a year ago.

"I don't think the general public have begrudged that extra half-penny when they take into consideration the benefits that have accrued to the roundsmen," said Mr. Purtell. The union had asked also for a limited gallonage, he added, but the Court had been faced with conflicting evidence—"and, of course, Rome was not built in a day."

Speaking generally of conditions in the trade, Mr. Purtell said there was not the same piracy In the distribution of milk that had existed before there was some measure of control. It used to be possible, for example, for people to canvas milk rounds, take the cuatom and sell the goodwill back to the man from whom it had. been canvassed. Today no one could start a milk round with a license from the Milk Council.