Decision Reserved On Pay For Moslem Killing

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29909, 24 August 1962, Page 5

Decision Reserved On Pay For Moslem Killing

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 23. The Arbitration Court today reserved its decision in the hearing of a 'dispute over pay rates for slaughtermen killing sheep for the Moslem market according to rites laid down in the Koran.

The dispute, stated outside the Court today to have delayed New Zealand’s entry into what may be one day her largest market for sheep meats, is over a claim by the Wellington Freezing Works and Related Trades Workers’ Union for double rates for this special killing.

The applicants are the Wellington Meat Export Company.

The Court’s decision in this case is expected to set the rate for such killings at all works throughout New Zealand.

Moslem countries presented a potential market for New Zealand, the largest exporter of sheep meats in the world, said Mr J. B. Walton, for the company.

This potential market was, however, a low cost market, due to lower standards of living generally prevailing.

It was therefore vital to the development of these markets that New Zealand was able to offer a low priced product. “It is also important, indeed essential, that the slaughter of sheep meats for the Moslem market be carried out in accordance with the Moslem faith. This method of killing can be refered to as ritual killing," said Mr Walton.

The act of slaughter must be performed by a Moslem authorised by his faith to do so. The properly-killed carcase must bear a stamp which showed tjiat the meat is acceptable to Moslem communities.

“The Wellington Meat Export Company is, to the best of our knowledge, the first freezing company to attempt Moslem killings in the normal run of production. “It was lucky that it had on its staff a Moslem authorised by his faith.” Killing Trials

The company had conducted trials at the Ngauranga works which “proved that such killings can be done without impediment to the normal run f of piece slaughtering on a mutton and lamb chain. In the course of processing the animals there were no “missed hooks” on the chain.

Apart from the ritual associated with the actual sever-

ing of the jugular veins, there was no substantial difference from the normal method of slaughtering. “We therefore contend that the Moslem killings, offering as they do no serious impediment to production, should be paid for at the normal piecework rates of pay specified in the award.” If “missed hooks" did occur, this could be adjusted at the works concerned, said Mr Walton. Union’s Case

While the Moslem killing of sheep was not so complicated as the Kosher system, it had a slowing effect on the chain which would reduce the rate of killing to half the normal, said Mr T, F. Collerton, for the union.

The union contended that the pay rate should not be less than double rate.

For employers to say that an odd sheep introduced to the chain should be slaughtered by the ritual method was an attempt to break down conditions. Double rates were paid for killing rams and these could be introduced at intervals without a drop in the total kill in a given period.

Much had been made of the workers pricing the employers out of the market, said Mr Collerton. He suggested that employers could well “carve their profit margin instead of expecting the workers to carry the burden. “The workers realise the need for new markets but cannot be expected to wholly subsidise the employers in this respect,” said Mr Collerton, who quoted the low price received by farmers compared with that received by companies for animals. Rates Quoted

Workers in the Wellington district received £5 19s 8d a 100 ewes, which worked out

at something like Id per lb. Doubling the rate paid the worker could not be said to be pricing the product out of the market.

In asking for double rates the workers had been conservative. for the figure could not compensate them for the slowing of the chain and the reduction in earnings—plus the extra effort made by the worker with the ritual killing.

At a later date the emnloyers might devise a different method of killing which would ensure a full supply of dead stock with the spinal column severed as well as jugular veins cut. This would ensure workers’ earnings were not reduced by the chain slowing. The employers could apply to obtain a new rate then.