PARTIAL AGREEMENT

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 152, 24 March 1938, Page 6

PARTIAL AGREEMENT

Furniture Trades’ Dispute A partial agreement was effected yesterday in the Conciliation Council in the furniture trades dispute on an application for a new Dominion award. The Conciliation Commissioner, Mr. M. J. Reardon, presided. Mr. W. J. Mountjoy was the advocate for the employers and Mr. F. D. Cornwall for the union. It was agreed that journeymen should be paid 2/9 an hour, semi-skilled workers, 2/74; spring makers, 2/5; and timber stackers, 2/44. Clauses that are to go to the Court of Arbitration for settlement include holidays, female workers, proportion of workers, meal money, the demand for 10/- for handling corpses, and the term of the award. A deputation from the Funeral Directors’ Association waited on the council asking for the right to Work casket makers on Saturdays at ordinary rates in the mornings, and one and a half rates in the afternoons, provided the 40-hoiif week was observed. This was agreed to, the Saturday morning work to be, as far as possible, rotated among the staff. The deputation also asked that the 10/- demand for handling bodies be not acceded to. It was pointed out by one of the assessors, Mr. H. Marker, that in Christchurch this charge of 10/would cost £l6OO a year, assuming casket makers were employed on the work.