CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15773, 14 December 1916, Page 3

CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

BPiUSHMAKERS' DISPUTE

The hearing of the dispute in tho brushmaking trade camc before the Conciliation Council yesterday, Mr J. R.' Triggs (Cornmissioner) presiding. Messrs G. Walsh, Charles Millington, and Archibald McLachlan appeared for the Christchurch Brush and Broommakers' Industrial Union of Workers, and Messrs Isaac Woolf, Arthur Albert Shaw, and Frank Cooper for the employers. The union claimed a. forty-four hour week. The minimum rate of wages asked for was as follows :—First-class machinists, wood-turners, and millet broom makers. £3 6s per week: firstclass hair hands 'mixing), £0 10s: horsehair drafter and curlcr, noil .stock and bottle brush hand and bench sawyer hands, £3 6s per week; shaper machine hand, £3 10s; second-class machinists, £'3; minimum wage for any man working £13 1.5s per week. The proportion of apprentices Ha imcd was odc to four journeymen or fraction of four up to eight. After eight, two apprentices and' so on proportionately. Girls (16 years*, 15s per week, with an increaso of 2s 6d a. week per sis months until the minimum wage is reached. Women (20 years), 25s per week for the. first- six months and 30s for the second six months, for the third six months, after which the minimum wage for women (37s 6d per week) shall be paid. For ordinary apprentices, the wages asked are to extend over six monthly periods, starting at los per week and increasing as ' follows: — Second six months, 17s 6d; third, £1; fourth, ,22s 6d; fifth, 2os; sixth, 30s; seventh, 3os: eighth, 403; ninth, 4os; and tenth, 60s. After this the minimum rate shall be paid. The prices of piecework as per log were also submitted. The proceedings were taken in committee. It was decided that the employers and workers should informally discuss matters and report, and, if necessary, ask the Commissioner for another sitting of tha Council.