WAGE RISE SOUGHT
Workers at South Island wool scouring works have banned overtime and restricted shift work as a result of the management's refusal to grant a wage increase of 20c an hour.
The scourers are seeking the rise to bring their pay scale to parity with those of related trades. Negotiations for the increase were held on Thursday, but broke down when the management attempted to use overtime payments as a means to justify its refusal to grant adequate wage 'increases, the secretary of the New Zealand Freezing Workers’ and Related Trades Union (Mr F. E. McNulty) said last evening. “The present wage scale is so depressed that it is not keeping pace with relative scales,” Mr McNulty said. “We reduced our original claims quite considerably in an attempt to come to a settlement, but we told the employers that the lowest minimum rate we could take would be 20c an hour above the present wages.”
The ban on overtime will affect all eight fully-commit-ted scouring works in the South Island, some of which are working 12-hour shifts and seven-day weeks. The present award does not expire until March next year, but Mr McNulty said the union was willing to accept renegotiation of the award to provide for the increase.
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Press, Volume CX, Issue 32359, 27 July 1970, Page 12
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211WAGE RISE SOUGHT Press, Volume CX, Issue 32359, 27 July 1970, Page 12
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