GUARANTEED PRICE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 175, 21 April 1937, Page 12

GUARANTEED PRICE

Increase Said To Be Coming STATEMENT BY HON. F. WAITE Farm Workers’ Wages Would Also Rise Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, April 20. A statement that an increase in the guaranteed price for dairy produce, with a consequent increase in the wages of farm workers, would take place in about three months’ time was made by Mr. F. Waite, M.L.C., at a meeting of the Otago Provincial Council of the Farmers Union. The new rate will probably operate from the beginning of the next export reason, Mr. Waite said, and as a consequence the farm workers wage would be advanced to £2/u/- a week with keep from the present figure ol £2/2/0. Referring to the negotiating ol a new agreement for farm workers other than those on dairy farms, Mr. Maite <aid that the Minister had power by regulation to extend the provisions ot the Agricultural Workers’ Act passed last session to apply to farms other than dairy farms, and it bad been made perfectly plain that if an agreement commensurate with that Act were not arrived flit then an award of the Arbitration Court would be made. Representatives of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, at the discussions, asked for the classification of all farm labour, Mr. Waite added. “We would not agree to that, nor would we agree to a clause providing for preference to unionists which, in reality, was compulsory unionism. In the fruit farm workers’ agreement there is a stipulation that when a man has been working for four weeks he automatically becomes a member of the union and the employer has to deduct union fees from his wages and forward them to union headquarters. We objected to that. The new agreement was on all fours with the Agricultural Workers’ Act, Mr. Waite continued. The hours of labour were not prescribed, 18 days’ annual holiday was to be given at a time that suited the employer and the minimum wage was fixed at £2/2/6, with keep, compared with the absolute minimum of £2/18/6 with keep that could have been secured under an award of the Arbitration Court. This rate of £2 2/6, plus 17/6 a week for keep, would come into operation in May, and would be revised on July 31, from which date the rate of wages would be £2/5/- a week for a period of 12 months. Taking it all round, it was not so bad, as there was freedom of hours and no compulsory unionism. “In the evept of there being a fall in the price of wool next year, for instance, we have the right to ask for a reduction of these wages,” said Mr. Waite. “Wages paid under the Agricultural Workers’ Act are based on the guaranteed price, and if that goes up the wages of dairy-farm workers have to go up,” Mr. Waite added,- “and consequently there will be a rise in the wages of workers on dairy-farms. It is probable that that will also apply to workers on other types of farms. For the next three months wages will be at the present level, and when the guaranteed price goes up, wages will follow.”