EMPLOYERS’ CASE STATED

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22370, 6 April 1938, Page 7

EMPLOYERS’ CASE STATED

GASWORKERS* DISPUTE ■ ■ s EVIDENCE OP HIGHER COSTS t TO COMPANIES fraißS ASSOCIATION TEUEORAM.) WELLINGTON, April 5. The case for the employers was outlined by their representative, Mr W. E. Anderson, before the Arbitration Court, which is hearing an application by the New Zealand Gas workers’ Employees’ Union for a Dominion award. Mr Anderson said that the first clause in the dispute related to hours of work. The employers asked for a renewal of the Court’s order of 1936. This provided for a 40-hour week, except for yardmen and drivers engaged in receiving, trimming, bunkering, or handling coal or ashes and complaints men. The employers now desired that men handling coke should be brought within this, exception. The next objection by the employers was to the union’s application for an extra payment of 12s 6d for complaints men required to work a shift on Saturday afternoon. There must be complaints men on duty on Saturday afternoons. Although the employers were opposed to the union’s demand for 12s 6d, they were prepared to pay 8s 6d extra. Mr Anderson next dealt with the classification of workers agreed on by the parties. He said that there was some difference of opinion on the wording in some instances.

Mr Anderson dealt with the wages issue, which the workers divided into four general classes, namely, shift workers, skilled workers, semi-skilled workers, and unskilled workers. Shift workers, he submitted, with the exception of engine drivers, required no lengthy training. He submitted that the employers were quite entitled to ask the Court to assess wages for shift workers on the following basis: Start with £4 8s 4d, then add, 3s allowance for shift work, plus another 3s for the nature of the work performed, making a total of £4 14s or a daily rate a shift of a live-day week of 18s 6d, plus another 2s a shift on an average because of Saturday, Sunday, and holiday payments. Employers’ Offer The most liberal basis the employers could take would be: Start at £4 13s 4d, plus night shift allowance Is 6d a shift (5s a week), plus 5s for the warm nature of the work, giving a total £5 3s 4d, which for a five-day week made the daily rate a shift 20s Bd. In this case the extra payment a shift for Saturday afternoon work, Saturday and holiday work was 2s 2d. Dealing next with engine drivers, Mr Anderson said that they were semiskilled. Four engine drivers’ awards had been made by the Court recently, and it was submitted by the employers that the wages given in these were the proper basis for the Court to follow for engine drivers in gas works. Mr Anderson called as the first witness for the employers F. W. J. Belton, engineer of the Christchurch Gas company, who said that in 1931 the net cost of coal to his company, less the revenue obtained from the sale of coke, tar* and ammonia, amounted to 11.7 d per 1000 cubic feet of gas. In the last 12 months, in spite of the increased cost of cor.l, the figure had

been brought down to approximately 4.5 d a 1000 cubic feet. The price of ga; remained the same, but the company’s dividend, which in 1931 was 8 per cent., at present was only 7 per cent. “The whole of the saving has been absorbed in increased wages and taxation. without the company being able to pass any portion back to the consumer.” the witness said. The hearing was adjourned.