80 HOURS AND £35 A WEEK

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28524, 1 March 1958, Page 10

80 HOURS AND £35 A WEEK

Seven-Day Round For Workmen

The 150 men building the new Hermitage are working 80 hours a week and earning up to £35. plus full keep. They have not lost one hour of work through disputes or the atrocious weather, and they have not had a serious injury. Above all, they are the most enthusiastic and contented party the architects and the contractors have ever known. The main reasons seems to be that they are “men with a mission.” Practically every one of scores interviewed said that he was saving to get married, to buy a house,'or to pay off a mortgage. Very few of those questioned is drawing any wages. They have set aside money from their savings for their personal expenses and to maintain their homes; but they aim to take their full pay packet of £5OO to £750 intact when the job is over. There has been one stop-work meeting of two hours on a Sunday afternoon. The Carpenters’ Union was concerned about men working double the usual weekly hours over such a long period. But the men voted to keep it up—and they asked to be allowed to make up the two hours lost through the meeting. The management was grateful for this attitude; but it insists that all men take a long week-end off at least once a month. Efficient Foreman Everyone gives chief credit for the smooth running of the job to the genera] foreman (Mr Barry Hegg. rty>. How do these men spend what spare time there is? Presumably such hours and tempo of work would create a thirst. But less than 5 per cent, of the men on the job have a glass of beer “Then you only have to buy smokes.” it was suggested. “We do wash,” was the reply in chorus. Soap seems to be their major expense.

A good number spend the few hours between 4 p.m. and sundqwn on Sundays in the mountains. Nobody has reached a major peak, but many have scrambled a good way toward nearby summits. The Clerk of Works (Keith Sowry) delights to tell how Derek Body, one of the labourers, beat Chief Guide Mick Bowie’s recoi . for the return trip up Mount Sebastapol, behind the Hermitage. Mr Bowie set a time of one hour 31 minutes 15 years ago. Derek Body, who has climbed in England, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Mexico, and Canada, made the trip in o e hour 13 minutes, and the v orHian who came second in this race for the “Mt. Sebastapol challenge trophy” recorded one hour 19 minutes.

Thar shooting is another pastime. The plumbers claim the record with eight shot by a party of three.

There is one man who does not approve any of this expense of

energy. He is a leading hand carpenter (Jock Russell). “If mountains were meant to be walked on they would be flat,” he said. Perhaps he is biassed. On his one essay at the mountains he simply could not find a way to get down, so he tobogganed on his trousers. These men literally “eat like horses.” Gordon Bloomfield, whose jobs range from site manager to camp doctor, makes this standing weekly order for provision:—lB 20-gallon cans of

milk, 12 dozen large loaves, 36 tins of biscuits, six 501 b boxes of butter, six 12-dozen crates of eggs nine full rumps of beef, 12 carcases of “sheep,” 1801 b of corned beef, 12 sirloins of beef, two crates of fish, 18 sacks of potatoes, six sacks of cabbages, three sacks of carrots, and six churns of ice cream. In addition, he places huge varying orders for pork, lambs v fry, sausages, jams, fruit, cereals, salad greens, and other items. This provides 450 cooked meals, a . day.