ARBITRATION COURT.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2018, 27 March 1914, Page 5

ARBITRATION COURT.

TWO NEW AWARDS. PLUMBERS £ METAL WORKERS. _ Two awards and some other Arbitration Court decisions were made available yesterday.

Among tbese Wa-a tho plumbers' award, which lays down that', exeepfc where otherwise., provided, tho hours of work shall bo front 8 a.m. till 3 p.m. daily, excepting on Saturday, when they shall bo from 8 a.m. till noon. One hour is to be allowed for dinner, but it may be agreed to shorten it to half an hour between May 1 and August 81, so thatwork may cease at 4.30 p.m. instead of at 5 p.m. Time- worked outside the prescribed hours shall bo paid for at the following rates: —First two hoars, time and a quarter; then time and a half until midnight, and thereafter double time till S a.m. Work -on Boxing Day, New Year's Bay, Easter Monday, Labour Day, and tho sovereign's birtliday, and after 1 p.m. on trio weekly half-holiday shall bo paid for nt tho rate of time and a half. Doii'Mo time is stipulated for work on Christmas Day, Good Friday, and Sundays. The mini* mum wage for a. registered plumber or gasfitter shall be Ib. 6d. per hew, and, for all other journeymen. Is, Set. per hour. Workers carrying materials or a kit of tools to or from a shop outside the main hours specified shall be paid at the rate of time and a Ojuatter. Not less than two hours' notice ori leaving or dismissal shall he given, escept jn cases of misconduct.

Suburban work,, in regard to Wellington, means work done otitsido a radius of two miles from the employer's place of business. Workers shall he- allowed one penny per mile if they -use a b-icyete in the work of thejt employer. For country work an extra 3sy 4d. per day is to bo paid. 05 board and lodgings are to bo provided by* the employer. The hours of country Work may he varied. Piece-work is not allowed. Every firm shall be allowed one apprentice, and, after that, the number is not to .exceed one to two fullyeftiployed journeymen. The minimum rates of pay for apprentices shall bo: First year, 6s, per week; second year, 10s,; third year,- 15s.j fourth year, 215,; fifth year, 275. 6d.; and sixth year, 35s

Preference is given to uaionists, and tho award is to operate t-h.rougriovt the Northern, Tarana.lii, W-ollington, Canterbury, Otago, and Southland Industrial Districts. ' The award is operative between April 6, 1914, and December 31,, 1916. " .

Memorandum on Award. r *The following memorandum is attached to the award :-»""Th'i.s a*ard is based for the most part Upon tho dations of Conciliation Ceirncfls in dif" ierent parts of the Dominion. We have, however, modified the preference clause so as to bring it intc> conformity with prior Dominion awards, arid wo repeat that, escept under special circwm* stances, the Court ift making a Dotfiiiiion award will adhere to what is known as tho Court's clause, relating to preference. Wo have thought it proper to offer some inducement to workers .tc qualify themselves for tlie higher branches of tho industry, and we Save, therefore differentiated between the registered and unregistered plumbers, awarding the wage of is. Gd. per hour to the former, and Is. M. per boitf to tho .latter.' Tho wage of Is. 3d. is conceded on tho basis of.the voluntary agreement on the part of the toaster plumbers of Auckland to. pay tliftt rate. If this' agreement had not been made we should probably have fixed the wage of the unregistered plimtber at .Is. 4,1-a., that being 'the rate arrived at by the Court (after consideration of- many cases extending over Mai© years) as the ; reasonab)o minimum ■ wage' for skilled •workers, which was to remain! till it was satisfactorily established that the conditions of the trade had so altered 'as to render some " modification desirable and proper."

METAL V/ORKERS. . CLASSIFICATION SIMPLIFIED. The Wellington Metal WoiLeis' Assistants' Award, whieb. wll operate from April 6, 1914. to Decemboi 11, 1916, covers the Wellington Industrial District.

Tho week's work is fised at il hours —8£ daily escept on Saturday, when tho time is to be 4i hours.. Overtime is fixed at time ana a quarter for the first two hours, and time ails'a half thereafter. Work on Now Year's Day, Easter Monday, or King's Birthday is to be paid for at the rate of time a half, and work on Sunday, Good Friday, Labour Day, or Christmas Day at f&o rate of double time. Workers eftgaged on night shifts shall be paid 2s. per shift extra if. working on tlireo or more consecutive nights. A night shift is 8 hours, and one day shift arifj ono night shift only shall be worked during each twenty-four hours. Overtime for tho night shift is the same as previously mentioned. Dirty work carries aft extra Is. per day for. men, and (>d. for yafrfehs. Minimum wages are fixed thus:—Furnacemen, ls.Sd. per hour; Work on ships or marine boiler repair work,'ls. 3d., per hour; machinists, Is. M. per hour; all others, Is, 2d. per hour. The wages for boys a,ud youths ares Under fifteen years, 10s, ■ per week; fifteen to sixteen, 153.; sixteen to seven* teen, £1; seventeen to eighteen, £1 55.; eighteen to nineteen, £i 10s.; nineteen to-twenty, £1 155., and thereafter the minimum rato for men. The proportion of boys and youths shall net he more than ono to three men (or a-fraction of three men) fully employed. The award may be superseded by a Dominion award. Court's Memorandum. .

0A memorandum attached runs as follows:—"This award, for the most part, is based upon the awards made in connection with tho engiueeriag trade throughout the Dominion. A slight increase has been granted upon the wages stipulated in those awards, ami the classification has been simplified in such manner as provides a minimum rate of Is. 2d. per hour for ail adult workers." APPRENTICES. IN THE PLUMBING TRADE. Tho Inspector of Awards a.t W'anganui recently asked the Court for an interpretation of Clause'!) of the Wellington District Plumbers' and Gasfitters' Award. Clause 9 reads:— "Every employer wlio engages an assistant shall be deemed tq have undertaken the duty of teaching him tho trade, which duty shall be enforceable under the award." Tho question which the inspector asked was: "Is it competent for an employer to employ a plumber's apprentice at excavation work in connection with drainago?" Tho Court's answer is: "It is not for an employer to employ an apprentice at excavation work in connection with drainago work beyond the outside wall of the building from which tlie drainage connection is being made." COMPENSATION. AN INJURY TO AN EYE.

Decision was made public in. a Napier case in which Frederick Kendall, a carpenter, claimed compensation from Wit. liam Ward and others respecting an injury to one of his ev-ts. The Court awarded Kendall £54 9s. 7d., together with £1 medical expenses, and compensation at tho rate of oiie penny per ivcck from August 3, 1913, until the increase or termination of tho incapacity.

The executors of John Joseph Cont.ior had also heen joined its defcntfajiis with Ward, but the Court gave judgment iii their favour-