FREEZING DISPUTE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 227, 22 June 1936, Page 10

FREEZING DISPUTE

Complete Agreement

Reached 1931 CONDITIONS Commissioner’s Comment Complete agreement was reached late on Saturday night in the Dominion meat-freezing industry* dispute heard in Wellington before the newly-appoint-ed conciliation commissioner, Mr. JReardon. The effect of this will be that as from July 1 the employees in the industry throughout New Zealand will revert to the conditions and wages set out in their 1931 awards and agreements. Where clauses were agreed on during the three days’ sitting, these will be embodied in the 1931 conditions, but where no agreement has been reached the 1931 conditions will apply. The Arbitration Court will not oe asked to deal in any way with the rates of pay, hours of labour, or working conditions, but will be asked to determine, after hearing argument, whether the payments provided for by recent legislation should be taken into account in the calculation of the 1931 rates when no holidays were paid for. “The agreement as it stands now.” Mr. Reardon said, “challenges in importance the agreement recently arrived at by the Minister of Public Works in the standardisation of Public Works rates of pay. There are more than 10,000 men employed in the meat freezing industry, and the agreement covers every works from Whangarei to the Bluff.”

Employers’ Statement. The terms of the agreement are disclosed in the following statement by the employers:— “The employers understand that they, in common with other employers, will be obliged to pay, as from July 1, 1936, the 1931 rates of pay, and are therefore bound to accept this position. This is subject to the question of rates being left to the court, for the reason that the legislative provisions in regard to payments for statutory holidays, extra payments for junior labour, the basic wage and other factors may be taken into account in tne adjustment of the 1931 rates. . The employers desire to reserve any rights they may have in this connection. The 1931 conditions are to be taken as a basis with the following reservations: The employers are prepared to accept the agreement already arrived at with regard to certain clauses and desire improvements in the general drafting of clauses. This, of course, is without prejudice to. the right of either party to discuss and amend certain clauses to which present exception is taken.”

Employees’ Attitude.

The attitude of the applicants is summed up in the following statement: “The applicants accept as a basis of settlement the principle of full restoration of the 1931 rates and other conditions of employment- but do not accept the claims of the employers that payment for holidays be taken into consideration in determining the actual rates to be paid. The applicants also claim that they are entitled to the 40hour week and a consequential adjustment of rates of pay which will bring the workers’ earnings for a 40-hour week to the level existing under the •14-hour week.” A drafting committee was set up for the purpose of embodying the terms of the agreement in a new set of clauses to be incorporated in the new award. At the conclusion of the sitting, Mr. H. F. E. Turner, Christchurch, congratulated Mr. Reardon on his appointment as Conciliation Commissioner, and expressed his great pleasure at the manner in which the proceedings had been conducted. Mr. W. E. Sill, Auckland. agent for the workers’ organisations, supplemented Mr. Turner’s remarks.

By consent, the Auckland Abattoir Assistants’ Union was added as a party to the dispute, thus giving them the same standing as the North Island assedation.