Wool-scour men get 13 p.c. rise

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33093, 7 December 1972, Page 1

Wool-scour men get 13 p.c. rise

A new award has been settled for wool-scour workers, granting them an average 13 per cent wage increase.

Over the last month, negotiations for the new award have been dogged by walk-outs, overtime and load-out bans, and dismissal as the workers pressed for a 15 per cent wage claim. The employers’ initial offer was an 8 per cent increase. Under the new award, several hundred workers in wool-scouring plants from Marton in the north to Invercargill in the south will get an additional 16c to 18c an hour, bringing their hourly rate to between $1.36 and $1.48, 6c an hour more than the basic rate offered initially

by the employers, but 2c an hour less than that claimed by the union. The increases will come into immediate effect, and the award will run for 16 months until the end of February, 1974. The union advocate (Mr F. E. McNulty) said last evening that the award represented quite a considerable increase for the wool-scour workers. “I feel that if this had been offered in the first place, it would have stopped a lot of industrial unrest,” he said. “We hope that the industry can operate smoothly and satisfactorily from now on.”