WAGES REDUCTION.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17451, 11 May 1922, Page 7

WAGES REDUCTION.

ARBITRATION COURT'S FORMAL ORDER.

(rRXSS ASSOCIATION' ITLEGItAU.j

AUCKLAND, May 10. An order amending awards and industrial. agreements now in force in the Dominion, in terms of the decision of May Sth to reduce the cost of living bonus, has been made by the Arbitration Court. The order provides that all time rates of remuneration, whether payable as basic wages only, or as basic wages with bonus or bonuses, with the exception of those excluded by the Court, shall be reduced as follows: — Per Per Per Pel* month, week. day. liour. £B. d. s. d. d. d.

Tho rates of workers employed m theatres and other places of entertainment who are paid at performance rates shall be reduced 6d per performance. All piecework (inclusive of bonuses, if any)", shall continue in .force for the purpose of calculating the earnings ol the workers, but the earnings of each worker slmll be reducible in respect at time actually worked by liim or her 111 each week by an amount calculated at the rate of 5s per week in the case or males, and 2s 6d per week in the case ot females. , . , The foregoing provisions shall n°t operate in respect oi the following awards and industrial agreements:— Green Island coal mines award, Kaitangata coal mines award, Waronui and Taratu coal mines award, Nightcaps and Wairino-Wairaki districts coal mines award. Shag Point coal mines award, Scotland coal mines award, Northern industrial district coal mines award. Point Elizabeth and Liverpool State coal mines industrial agreement, Mount Torlesse coal mines industrial agreement, Inangahua gold mines industrial agreement, northern industrial district except Gisborne judicial district) iorated water and cordial factories employees' award, 'New Zealand seamen's and firemen's industrial agreement.

In a memorandum, tho Court states that it has specifically excluded from its operation a number of awards and industrial agreements, the provisions of which indicate that a special mode of adjustment hud been agreed on by tho parties or ordered by the Court. The Court proposes to file a number of orders for partial exclusion, which will cover cases in which just bonuses havo been withheld, wholly or in part. Applications from several unions in respect of other awards and industrial agreements have been considered, but the Court has decided not to deal with these ex parte. The unions concerned may make formal application for exclusion, but the Court desires to point out that the fact that the award rates in some trades are highei in one district than in another is not a ground for making an order for exclusion in regard to the fatter district. Any anomaly will be considered when a new award becomes due.

In the case of workers paid at hourly rates, but whose conditions of work are special, and who regularly eayi extra money, such as tramway employees, the Court has on more than one occasion held that the so-called pronouncement does not apply.

Adult male li workers 1 1 C 5 0 10 Adult 1€ male workers 0 10 10 2 G 3 * J uniors 0 6 0 1 6 3 5