Arguments For Equal Pay

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31225, 24 November 1966, Page 3

Arguments For Equal Pay

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON. Nov. 23.

A woman witness asking for equal paysaid in the Arbitration Court today that women assemblyworkers at her factory were better workers than the men beside them, but they got far less pay.

Mrs Olive Gibson, of Otahuhu, said she had worked in an Auckland can-making factory for 14 years.

She said that in this industry women were better workers than men because they were more dextrous and they adapted themselves better to the monotonous work. But men on the same assembly line, doing exactly the same work, were paid 7s 3d an hour compared with the women’s 4s Hid with overtime and bonus also based on these rates. She said women often trained men, who while they were being trained, were paid the higher wage. Women at the factory considered they should get equal

pay with the men, she said. Asked by Judge A. P. Blait for her opinion on the principle of men needing more pay because they generally had more dependants and more financial responsibility, she said she agreed with that. But a lot of women also had a lot of financial responsibilities, of which, possibly, noone was aware, she said. Mr A. B. Grant, workers’ representative on the Court, asked Mrs Gibson if she knew that women received equal pay by law in Czechoslovakia, and at the same time got longer holidays and better sick leave provisions. She said she did not know that but she agreed with Mr Grant that in New Zealand women workers were regarded as second-class persons in industry. A claim for equal pay for women in the canister workers’ industry was being heard by the court, on the initiative of the Engineers’ Union (Mr P. G. Allen). Mr Allen said that in work groups where men and women worked alongside one another handling the same number of units and units of the same weight there should not be any wage difference. It was a common occurrence for women to in- . -ft

terchange with men on various positions in the manufacture of canisters, but they were being paid less. Women should receive the rate for the job instead of a lower rate based on their sex. It was becoming more apparent that employers were using women on jobs as replacements for males at a lower wage rate.

He acknowledged employers’ arguments that with women the rate of sickness, absenteeism and labour turnover was higher than that of men. One more element in the turn-over rate was the residence of a married couple which was normally determined by the occupation of the man.

But many single women had relatives, other than parents, who were as dependent on their earnings as wives and children were on the earnings of husbands and fathers. Many had dependent sisters who kept house for them.

“In the light of present-day developments and thinking, the time is long overdue when equality between sexes within industry should be recognised and wages rates adjusted accordingly,” he said. Mr W. C. McDonnell, for Dunedin canister workers.

said equal pay for equal work, irrespective of sex, had been approved as a principle by the Legislature, but little headway had been made in a practical application. He asked the Court to visit a factory and evaluate the position at first hand. “We feel sure that male rates will then be awarded to female workers,” he said. Mr G. A. Turner, for the employers, said there had always been a differential between male and female workers in the industry. The position of the female in the industry had not altered—there was no reason to treat them differently from those, for instance, under the metal trades’ award, which has always been related to the canister workers’ award. In spite of the equal-pay claim, unions still wanted maintained the limitations in awards and the Factories Act which applied to female labour—limitations on heavy work, hours, and shift work. The Legislature recognised there was a difference between male and female workers, and while these differences continued there was a valid reason for continuing the wage margins between male and female workers, he said.