SLAUGHTERING ON SUNDAYS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1143, 2 June 1911, Page 8

SLAUGHTERING ON SUNDAYS.

A DISPUTE. A dispute concerning the conditions nntier which stock is slaughtered on Sundays at tho municipal abattoir has arisen between the Slaughtermen's Union and the abattoir contractors (Messrs. Liddlc Bros.). Sunday slaughtering was authorised by thp City Council at its meeting on December. I, 1010. It was (hen agreed by the council that the permission to slaughter on Sunday should stand good during the summer months from November 1 to March 31. Tho permission was granted, subject to an immediate removal of offal from the abattoir. The secretary of (he Wellington Slaughtermen's Union (Mr. M. .1. Renrdon) stated yesterday that the contract .us now sought to make the Sunday slaughtering arrangement, apply all the year round. The view oi' the position taken by the union, as stated by Mr. Reardon, is 'that when the City Council authorised Sunday slaughtering (on December 1 last), the seven or eight men.employed at the abattoir by Messrs. Liddlc Bros, agreed to fall in with the- arrangement, and to work on Sundays during the summer mouths at ordinary rates of pay. "They understood," continued Mr. Reardon, "and, so far as ] can learn, so did Liddlc Bros., that this Sunday work wouk: last only during the summer months. Now, since the practice has been adopted, the shop butchers of .Wellington, who obtain their meat from the abattoir, appsar inclined 16 insist that the practice of killing on Sunday shall be continued right through the year. A permanent arrangement, in regard to Sunday killing, I understand, is particularly desired in tho case of the Jewish Rabbi. "Our. fellows have now declined, under ■the circumstances, to go on any longer with Sunday killing," stated tho union secretary. "They contend that the practice should have terminated a- month ago, when the cold weather set in, and they are not going to do any killing next Sunday." ' The mea employed at the abattoir, Mr. Reardon added, were not members of the. union until this dispute arose, but they had now joined in a body, and had asked the union to protect them. This it intended to do, for it held that men should not be asked to work on Sundays, at any time of the year, at ordinary rates. Tlie policy of the union was to demand double pay for Sunday work. Tho contractors (Messrs. Liddle Bros.) had been approached, Mr. Reardon remarked, but sheltered, themselves behind tho City Council, which, in its turn, no doubt, would shelter itself behind' the shop butchers, of Wellington. So the matter had been passed from one to another until it had now assumed the aspect of a crisis. . . The Wellington Union, Mr. Reardon atnted, had never previously asked that conditions should be laid down in respect of the abattoir, but it was now proposed to endeavour to obtain an agreement. Awards in force applied exclusively to piece-work. An agreement would probably bo asked for providing for a weekly wage as at present; but stipulating that double time should be paid on Sundays and holidays. At present ordinary time was paid for all work at the abattoir. Probably, added ■ Mr. Reardon, tho union would lay down alternative conditions— if tho contractors desired to pay the men piece-work rates, the union would draft a piece-work log—but the present disposition of the union was to stipulate for a weekly wage, a?id special payment on Sundays and holidays. The chairman of the City Reserves Committee (Councillor G. Khirtcliffe) stated, on being questioned, that ho had no information as to Sunday slaughtering having been carried on at the abattoir boyoiitl the period for which permission hail been granted. He would cause inquiry to be made into the matter iminedia.tely. It did not lie within the province of tho council, Councillor Shirtclifie added, to -intervene between the contractors and their men when a question of : wages was in dispute.