NEW AWARD SOUGHT

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 151, 23 March 1938, Page 13

NEW AWARD SOUGHT

Employees In Woollen Mills CLAIMS BEFORE COURT OF ARBITRATION Contending that employees in woollen mills were the worst-treated body of workers in the Dominion, the union representatives asked the Court of Arbitration at Wellington yesterday to replace an award made over nine years ago. In addition to argument a s to the relation of clerks to the other workers in the industry, the workers presented a case covering 84 " type- ' written foolscap pages, the reading of which occupied part of the morning and all of the afternoon sitting. The employers’ case will be presented to-day. Mr. Justice O’Regan presided, and with him were Messrs. W. Cecil Prime and A. L. Monteith. The full title of the dispute is the New Zealand federated woollen mills and hosiery factories’ employees’ dispute. Mr. N. T. Young, with him Mr. W. W. Batchelor, appeared for the workers, and Mr. A. S. Cookson, with him Mr. James Evans, for the employers. Considerable argument was first heard by the court on the question whether clerks employed purely in the mills or factories should come under the award or under the New Zealand Clerical Employees’ Association. After hearing the submissions the court leserved its decision. Case For The Workers. In opening the case for the whole of the workers, Mr. Young said that no award had been made since August »1, 1928, that award hieing a replica of the award that operated from July 12, 1926. It was, therefore, competent to say that wages, overtime and all conditions of work of the workers had not been altered for some nine years, and it would be further established that the present wages and overtime rates were identical with those of some 16 years ago. The reason for the lapse of time was not because the workers were in any sense content with the present award, but it was because of the depression that overcame the country and “the retrograde industrial enactments of an unfavourable Government that placed the employers of the Dominion in an unchallengeable position respecting Industrial disputes, awards and industrial agreements, leaving the workers entirely at the mercy of the employers.” Under the circumstances, Mr. Young said, it was a wise policy to refrain from entering an industrial dispute under the Act prior to enactments of the Labour Government. Had they done so and refused to accept the proffered wages and conditions of work of employers, the award would automatically have gone out of existence in a month, and the workers, would have -been left without any prescribed rates of wages and conditions of work. “Having in mind the wages and conditions existing in other industries,” Mr. Young continued, “one need have no hesitation at all in submitting that the workers of New Zealand woollen mills are by far the worst treated body of working men and women of the Dominion, inasmuch as their wages are rates belonging to the Dark Ages, while their conditions of work are so meagre as to be not worth counting. On top of this the employers firmly contend for the fewest possible classifications of workers, their object being to employ a worker at the very lowest rate of pay, and in a week or so require him to perform a higher grade of work, while still giving him the lower pay.’ It would be found that the rates paid to adult males 'in 1921 were identical with those under the present award. Wages Claims. The wages claimed by the workers arc as follows:— Hosiery needle straighteners, £7; hosiery footer operators, £6/17/6; wool sorter, £6/10/-; assistant foreman, £6/10/-; hosery oilers and cleaners, £5/10/-; female head examiner, £3; female chenille and settingroom weavers, £3/10/-; at hourly rates, tuner 3/-, hosiery mechanics 3/-, worsted spinner 3/-. At 2/9 each: Vat polers, woolblenders, yarnstore assistant, hosiery factory pressers, hosiery legger operators, assistant combers, cutting machinists, finishers, finishers’ assistants, weavers, male and female warpers, spinners, carding machinemen, assistant carders, pattern warpers, worsted room spinners, fettlers, woolscourer, assistant wool blender, head presser, blanket raiser, first assistant milling room, tenderers, drawers and twisters, cloth inspector. At 2/4 each: Hosiery scourers, Combminders, dye house assistants, piece rollers, milling room assistants, wooldryers; at 2/3 each, assistant operators hosiery factories, other adult males; at 1/9 each, adult seamers, in-

spectors, welters and finishers (hosiery factories), darners; at 1/6, all other adult females. For pieceworkers, 20 per cent, extra was sought on the piecework rates prevailing in December, 1936. The wages claimed for foremen are £7/5/- a week, for forewomen £4/15/and for assistant forewomen £4/5/-. It was asked that if the present wage of a foreman is higher than the rate claimed, the existing wage shall be the minimum during the currency of the award. Increases ranging from 2/6 to 15/- a week are sought for girls other than clerks, and from 1/6 to 16/- for boys other than clerks. For youths other than clerks the increases sought are 5.90 d. an hour at 18, 6.38 d. at 19 and 5.75 d. at 20. For flue cleaners 5/- an hour is asked, and for spinners attending to more than 400 spindles 3/- an hour. In view of the long period between the conciliation council meeting on May 5 and the present hearing, the court wag asked to make the wages clause retrospective,to June 1, 1937. Double and a quarter time is claimed for work on Sundays, and double time for work on holidays; for piecworkers the rates to be based on the average ordinary earnings during the preceding week. New Principles. In respect of overtime rates, said Mr. Young, the claims introduced a new principle of differentiation according to the hours of the day when oyertime was worked, the scale being time and a half for work between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.; double time between 8 p.m. and midnight, double time and a quarter between midnight and 8 a.m. Also stated to be a new principle was the claim in respect of an annual holiday, which asked that the holiday be equivalent to one and a half days for each complete month of employment, provided that a worker leaving before 12 months should be paid,the proportionate amount as for each complete month of employment. The remainder of Mr. Young’s address whs an exhaustive survey of statistics covering woollen mills and hosiery factories, together with particulars of the financial status of companies cited as parties to the dispute. The hearing w-ill be continued to-day.