WAGES AND HOURS

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 98, 19 January 1933, Page 8

WAGES AND HOURS

Plastering Trade Workers Meet Employers PROPOSALS CONSIDERED Slow progress was made by the Conciliation Council yesterday with the application for a new award made by the employers in the plastering trade in Wellington. Throughout the day the representatives of both sides submitted proposals, which the assessors in turn retired to consider. Hours and wages were the chief bones of contention, and the council has adjourned until January 30. The employers were represented by Messrs. W. J< Mountjoy, R. E. Kent, T. N. Lovatt, and T. F. Foley, and Messrs. W. Broadley, A. Barn, R. Burton, and C. G. Hall appeared as assessors for the Wellington Plasterers’ Industrial Union of Workers. Upon resuming yesterday Mr. Broadley said the union’s assessors had come there is a conciliatory spirit, prepared to offer and receive. They had left the council liable the night before rather incensed at the terms which had been offered by the employers. These terms the union could not accept; they had not yet reached the position of serfdom in New Zealand. The Conciliation Commissioner, Mr. E. W. F. Gohns, suggested thab the clauses in the award should be considered seriatim. Mr. Broadley said the workers were prepared to accept a 44-hour week. The Commissioner suggested that the council should first consider hours, wages, overtime, and holidays. Question of Earlier Start. Mr. Burton asked why, after 26 years of working from 8 to 5, the employers should ask that work should be started at 7 a.m.? Mr. Kent said the employers had tabled their proposals, and they would like to hear what the union proposed. Mr. Lovatt said the rates per hour were by no means the main issue. Mr. Broadley said wages were everything to the workers, and they were prepared to make concessions in conditions in order to retain decent wages. Mr. Burton then said the union was prepared to accept a 44-hour week, to be worked on five days of the week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and from 8 a.m. till noon on Saturday. The minimum rate of pay for plasterers should be 2/2 per hour. The employers’ assessors retired to consider these propoals, and upon resuming Mr. Mountjoy said the employers still desired the 7.30 a.m. start. They could not agree to 2/2 an hour for plasterers. Times were difficult and it had to be recognised that wages would have to be reduced. Mr. Burton said it was a grave mistake to imagine that the lowering of wages would improvfe the economic condition of the country. The reducing of wages would not help the employers. Workers “Very Clouded.” The workers’ assessors rettired to consider the employers’ proposals, and when they returned, Mr. Broadley said they had gone into the employers’ proposals, but were very clouded concerning them. The workers had offered a five-day week of 40 hours, while the employers had offered a five-day week of 44 hours. The union'objected to the clause allowing workers to make up time lost through wet weather. The union insisted upon the 8 a.m. start, and was firm for the 8-hour day, so that no agreement was reached. The employees’ representatives were working in the dark regarding the wages question, as tlie employers were holding this over the heads of the workers. The union also objected to payment for country work being mutually agreed upon. The afternoon session was taken up with the minor matters in dispute, but in these also the parties found, themselves unable to agree. Toward the end of the afternoon the employers introduced their wages proposals with an offer of 2/- an hour. In reply, Mr. Broadley said that the employees could not accept that rate of wages, which was the same as that received by the waterside workers, who had little kit to provide. Furthermore, it required no knowledge to handle cargo, and yet the waterside wages were being offered to skilled tradesmen. He said that the plasterer’s job was not more definite than that of the waterside worker, but was very indefinite, and instead of alleviating it, tlie employers were going to, aggravate the present position. “Your offer is not acceptable,” Mr. Broadley said. “You must get it into your head that the plasterer is worth more than the watersider.” He said that the plasterers usually received a penny or so more than the carpenters. They had been receiving id more because of lost time, yet the employers were not going to take that into consideration. “It appears that you are making us the lowest offer that you can, in the hope that we will accept it.” he concluded. The commissioner remarked that they were coming to a deadlock on wages, and in the event of there being no agreement, the parties could either adjourn or refer the matter to the Arbitration Court. They could not agree, and' the sitting was adjourned until January 30.