PRINTING TRADE DISPUTE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 150, 21 March 1939, Page 11

PRINTING TRADE DISPUTE

Employers Seek Workers’ Co-operation QUESTION OF HOURS OF WORK A 40-hour week for day workers and a 35-hour week for night workers is sought by the union in the New Zealand printing trade dispute, the hearing of which was begun in conciliation council in Wellington yesterday. In the employers’ counter-proposals, the clauses referring to the hours of work were left open “for discussion by the council of conciliation, in view of the expressed desire of the Government relating to expansion of production in local industries, the discussion to apply also to the hours requirements in the industries of manufactured stationery and tin printing.” “The present scale of wages in this and in other industries.” said Mr. E. W. Clarkson on behalf of the employers, “has- been artificially sustained during the past year, and the employers are convinced that the operation of economic conditions that, have become manifest during recent .montas will result in some modification of wage rates at present ruling in industry. However, the employers recognize that, for the present, it is both the policy of the Government and the practice of the Court of Arbitration to maintain the present level of wages and hours of work. They therefore propose to agree to a renewal of the provisions of the 1938 awards, as affecting wages, but to record their protest against both the 40-hour week and the present scale of wages. Undertaking Claimed Not Effective. “It is well known that the employers in this industry, since 193 G, have expressed very definite views that industry cannot be maintained successfully on a working week limited to 40 hours, and their acceptance of the 40-hour week in September, 1937, was accompanied by a very definite undertaking on the part of the workers’ representatives to the effect that the industry would not suffer any diminution in production: it is regretted it cannot be said that the undertaking has proved either serviceable or effective. “In the expressed desire of the Government relating to expansion in production in local industries, the employers are encouraged to invite the representatives of the workers at this Conciliation Council to co-operate with them wholeheartedly and in a constructive manner in determining the hours of work which are essential in the several branches of the industry—including the sections of manufactured stationery and tin-plate printing—and the methods by which the hours so determined shall be utilized to the utmost advantage to the end that the industry as a whole may be maintained at the essential level of economic production —to the mutual advantage of employer and worker —and be equipped to provide the extra services required of it in supplying the increased demands of local manufacturers who are being called on to increase production in present, factories and to introduce new industries to fulfil the requirements of the community in respect of that volume of commodities which, under the Import Control Regulations, will no longer be imported. Plea for Co-operation. “The employers are sincere in their opinion that this additional call upon the industry can be met only by the adoption of some increase in the hours of. work, at least in those establishments upon which a demand for increased production will be made, They are of opinion, too, that it is both more desirable and practicable to secure an increased output from the present installations rather than that the industry be forced to make a heavy demand on sterling funds through the laying down of further plant and equipment to operate which it is doubtful, in any case, if there would be available the necessary number of skilled workers even of the additional plant wbre so imported, for it has been not only apparent, but also frankly admitted by the federation of the workers that, during the past two years, there has been available to the industry no surplus of journeymen. “For these reasons, coupled with actual necessity, we earnestly invite you to extend your co-operation to the representatives of the employers in an endeavour to establish, along equitable lines, a set of conditions, in the matter of working hours, which will enable the industry to be maintained at an economically sound level and which also will permit of its fulfilling the additional functions required Of it.”