INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE SETTLED

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21966, 15 December 1936, Page 14

INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE SETTLED

WORKERS IN OPTICIANS’ PREMISES

The first occasion in which an industrial dispute has been taken to the Conciliation Council in Canterbury by employees in opticians’ premises occurred last evening, and the demands of the workers were agreed to in every major section, although the demands were accepted in amended form in some of the less important sections. The employers’ assessors were Messrs G. Sevickt Jones. E. Cholerton, and W. W. McKinney, and th« employees’ assessors Messrs F. D. Clark and A. R. Batstone, and Miss M. Turner. Mr S. Ritchie, Conciliation Commissioner, presided. Hours of work were fixed at 40 a week for learners and mechanics, and at 44 a week for assistants ir. optical rooms, shops, or warehouses. The working week was agreed on as five and a half days. The wage rates for learners increased from a minimum ol 15s a week for the first six months of service to £3 2s 6d in the fifth year of Thereafter the wages were fixed at £5 a week, and this was also the rate fixed for mechanics, although mechanics in charge of three or more workers were to receive not less than £5 10s a week. Wages for attendants rose from 15s a week for male and female workers during their first six months of service to a maximum of £4 for males and £2 10s for females, reached after the fifth year; of service.

The wages fixed by the award will operate from January 1. 1937, and the award will be for one year from the date of its ratification by the court.