INCREASED WAGES SOUGHT

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23947, 14 May 1943, Page 4

INCREASED WAGES SOUGHT

ARBITRATION COURT HEARING BEARING OF STABILISATION REGULATIONS One of the first applications under regulation 38 of the Stabilisation Emergency Regulations, giving the Court of Arbitration power to adjust anomalies, was heard by the Court at Christchurch yesterday, • It was in the form of an application for a new award for bacon workers in the Canterbury and Otago-Southland districts, and the only point at issue was the question of wages, the union claiming that they should be the same as in the northern district and the employers offering the scale of wages of the old award. The increases sought by the union were 5s and 5s 6d a week for adult male workers and 2s 6d a week for youths. The Court reserved its decision. Mr Justice Tyndall presided, and with him were Messrs W. Cecil Prime, employers’ representative, and A. L. Monteith, employees’ representative. Mr H. G. Kilpatrick appeared for the union, and Mr H. F. Butland for the employers. ~ , Mr Kilpatrick quoted the regulation as follows:—“Where'at any time during the present war any award or apprenticeship order is. made or amended by the Court of Arbitration in respect of any industry or branch of an industry, no variation shall be made in the minimum rates of remuneration or the principal conditions of employment for the time being applying to that industry or branch, as the case may be, except such adjustments of anomalies as the Court thinks fit, having regard to the general purpose of these regula lions.” From this, he deduced that the Court had power to decide what were anomalies and to decide whether it should adjust them. ' . Mr Kilpatrick said the new Auckland award which came into force in December had disrupted, to the disadvantage of South Island workers, the degree of uniformity which had prevailed in the awards covering Northern, Wellington. Taranaki, Canterbury, and Otago-Southland districts. In practice Wellington-Taranaki wages were higher than those in Auckland and the South Island because the*work was done at hourly rates of pay, and the advantage of weekly rates of pay did not exist in wartime because of the shortage of labour. He submitted that the economic stability of New Zealand would be supported rather than impaired by rates and conditions in the awards covering any industry being as uniform as possible. Mr Butland questioned Whether the rate of pay in the South Island was anomalous. Reducing it to an hourly basis, he said South Island workers received 2s 4£d an hour compared with 2s lOd an hour for comparable workers in the Wellington district, but South Island men received an additional 6d an hour for soirte classes of work, making' the rate 2s IOJd. The lowest paid South Island workers received about 2s 3d an hour, also with 6d extra for certain classes of work, compared with 2s Bid for men of a similar category under the Wellington award. He suggested that 70 per cent, of the workers’in this industry in New Zealand were receiving rates of pay similar to those in the South Island and that, if there were an anomaly it was the higher weekly wage at Auckland. Replying. Mr Kilpatrick said the 6d an hour extra was paid for slaughtering work, which was done at only one factory in the South Island and then only for about two days a week, giving these men a wage of about £5 13s a week. Slaughtermen in Wellington received £6 4s 8d a week and those at Auckland £6 10s. INTERPRETATION OF AWARD Whether the fixing of fibrolite spouting, gutters, downpipes, and flashing was work coming within the scope of the Plumbers’ and Gasfitters’ Award was a question asked the Court of Arbitration at Christchurch yesterday in an application for an interpretation of the award by Mr S. E. McGregor, inspector of awards. It was explained that the company making fibrolite in New Zealand did not sell it to plumbers but only to certain hardware firms which supplied the men to work with it. It was contended by the union that the work was plumbing work and that the use of a new type of material did not affect the issue. On the other hand, employers of tilers who did fibrolite roofing contended that the work should be done by men accustomed to using the material. Decision was reserved.