BREWERY DRIVERS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22430, 17 June 1938, Page 21

BREWERY DRIVERS

CANTERBURY AWARD CONCILIATION COUNCIL ADJOURNED An increase in wages and a reduction in hours were sought for drivers by the Canterbury Maltsters, Brewers, and Belated Trades Industrial Union of Workers in Conciliation Council yesterday, when the Conciliation Commissioner, Mr S. Ritchie, presided. The employers, in their counterclaim, sought a continuation, with slight modifications, of the terms of the present award in regard to hours, but offered an increase of 5s on existing rates of pay. The assessors for the employers were Messrs D. I. Macdonald (agent), W. L. M. Dearsley, W. F. Barbour, and A. B. Duncan, and for the applicants Messrs H. E. Denton (agent), J. J. Porter, J. Milligan, T. Lane, and J. Roberts. , The following were the weekly rates of wages offered by the employers, and which the employees’ assessors have signified their willingness to bring before their union for consideration at the earliest opportunity:— For drivers of motor vehicles with a combined weight of vehicle and load not exceeding two tons, £4 16s; more than two tons but not exceeding four tons, £4 18s 6d; exceeding four tons but not more than five and a half tons, £5 Is; more than five and a half but not exceeding 10 tons, £5 ss. Casual drivers are offered 2s 6d an hour. Overtime to be paid at time and a half for the first three hours, and thereafter at double-time rates. Subject to a general agreement being reached, the employers are willing to concede one week’s holiday annually on full pay, and to make the •award retrospective to June 1, The respondents were unwilling to agree that the delivery of bottled beer could be reduced to a minimum on Saturdays, contending that they had no control over private demand, which was often fairly considerable on Saturday mornings, and that, anyway, the delivery of draught beer, which could not be interfered with, was more important. The council was adjourned sine die.