GENERAL WAGE INCREASE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29009, 25 September 1959, Page 12

GENERAL WAGE INCREASE

Clerks Applying For Order

Among the list of about 100 awards and industrial agreements excluded from the general wage order issued by the Court of Arbitration last week was the New Zealand Clerical Workers' Award.

This caused some puzzlement among many members of the big union, because they knew that the 18 per cent, general order had not been written into the award rates of pay. As the news spread, the local office of the union has had an increasing number of inquiries. An official of the union explained yesterday that there was a clause in the award exempting from the award provisions workers in receipt of more than £791 a year. The clause said that the Court’s 18 per cent, general order had no effect on the limit. That clause, the official explained, was sufficient for the Court to exclude the award and make it subject to a separate amending order. The union was making an immediate application to the Court for the necessary amending order to give effect to the new increase, the union representative said. Of the awards excluded the clerical workers’ award covered the biggest number of workers, he said. Some of the other awards had only brief references to the previous 18 per cent, order, without the 18 per cent, being included, but the references were sufficient to qualify for exclusion and make a separate application necessary.