NEW AWARD SOUGHT

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 74, 20 December 1933, Page 12

NEW AWARD SOUGHT

Conciliation Council

Sitting

A Conciliation Council was convened yesterday to hear an application by the Electrical Workers’ Union for a new award.

The Conciliation Commissioner, Mr. P. Hally, presided. The assessors for the union were Messrs. E. Hoskins, B Jackson, A. Bryant. A. Curlew, and H. E. Swindell (agent), while the employers were represented by Messrs. H. E. Hollands, W. Cederholm, C. Camp, C. J. Lenihan, and W. J. Mountjoy (agent). The workers asked that journeymen be paid not less than 2/6 an hour. Additional pay was sought for workers employed about a ship’s boiler, overhauling undergear of tramcars, installing or overhauling storage batteries (other than motor-car batteries), work in freezing chambers, and repairing damage done by fire where the worker comes into contact with charred material. Any worker working about an engine-room or ship’s boiler where the temperature is over 110 degrees Fahrenheit should be paid double ordinary rates. It was claimed that 40 hours should constitute a week’s work. Special provisions were set out in respect to special businesses and local authorities.

The employers suggested that journeymen should be paid not less than 1/10J an hour; workers employed about a ship’s boiler, overhauling undergear of tramcars, workers in freezing chambers, etc., to be paid 1/2 aday in addition to ordinary wages. In the case of any tramway authority it should be left to the foreman to decide whether or not any particular work done by its workers was dirty work, with the right of any worker to appeal to the engineer. Any worker working about an engine-room or ship’s boiler where the temperature was over 115 degrees Fahrenheit should be paid time and a half ordinary rates. The main bone of contention yesterday was wages, and this occupied the greater part of the bearing, which will be continued to-day.