LABOUR COURT AWARDS, IMPROVEMENT IN DRIVERS' CON DITIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXII, Issue 129, 27 November 1901, Page 5

LABOUR COURT AW ARDS, IMPROVEMENT IN DRIVERS' CON DITIONS.

REDUCTION OP HOURS AND 13$ CREASE OP WAGES. This morning the Arbitration Court delivered its award in the ( recently - heard dispute filed by- tha Drivers' Union. Mr. Samuel Brown,, who is interested in the coal trade, and who took no part in the hearing of the dispute, was absent from the Bench. The award is a formidable document, covering sixteen typewritten pages of foolscap, and occupied Mr. Justice Cooper over twenty minutes in the reading. Ten classes of labour are dealt with in the award, and an all-round increase of wages and decrease of hours is the result. The union may be said to have scored on all points, and its Secretary (Mr. Allan Orr) roughly estimates that the drivers affected (those of Wellington City, Fetone, and the Hutt), who number between 500 and 600, will benefit to the extent of something Jiko £13,000 per annum. He says the Court, by its award, has recognised that hitherto the men in the driving trade have been very much underpaid. About 160 employers are joined as parties to the award. The following are the details of tha award : — Aerated Water and Cordial Trade.— < Drivers to leave the stables at 7 a.m. and return at 5 p.m. during months 1 from April to October, and during the other months leave the st-ables at 6 a.m. and return at 6 p.m. Wednesday halfholiday to be observed, except in case of the Phoenix Company, which observes the Saturday half-holiday. An hour ia to be allowed for both breakfast and dinner. Minimum wage to be £2 59 per week. Preference is granted to members of the union, provided they, have served their time at the trade,; with the stipulation that the hands employed in the factory of an employer requiring drivers shall be given preference over outsiders. When urgency requires it, men in the factory may be taken to 1 do drivers' work. With the exception of cleaning and attending to horses, work done on Sundays shall be paid, for at the rate of 2s 6d per hour, but the Court directs that only work of abso* lute necessity shall be done on Sunday. Sand, and Gravel Drays. — Work to, commence at 7 a.m. and cease at 6 p.m., with an hour for dinner, on' five days, and on Saturday the hours to be from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., including dinner, hour. These hours to include those necessary for stable work. Minimum wage, £2 5s per week, and casual labour Is per hour, which will also be the overtime rate, .with 2a 6d per hour for Sun"day work. Bakers' Carts.— The week's work to consist of 55 hours, including .stable work, but exclusive of meal hours. No overtime to be allowed during the first month, when an employee is learning his duties. Minimum wage, £2 5s per week. Work to commence at 8 a.m., except on Saturdays and the days preceding holidays, when 7 o'clock shall be the hour. The Wednesday half-holiday to be observed. Overtime to be counted after 55 ' hours have expired. In the event of W. A. Kellow employing his driver in the shop on Saturday nights he shall pay that employee' an extra wage. Brick, Tile, and Timber ' Carters.— The week to consist of 46i hours, exclusive of meal-hours and time required for necessary stable work. Minimum v wage for drivers of vehicles drawn by one horse £2 ss, and for vehicles with more than one horse £2 Bsj Overtime to be calculated after 46^ hours hstve been worked. The arrangement of the working of tie hours is left to the discretion of the employer, subject to certain general restrictions. It was especially sefe out that W. Chalmers, cooper, was subject to the conditions under this class of labour. Coal and Firewood Carters.-nA. ■week's -work to consist of 47£ hours, exclusive of meal-hours and time necessary for stable attendance. Minimum wage — when the coal ia not bagged or, if bagged, is contained in bags not exceeding 1121b in weight, £2 5s per week; if the coal is contained in bags exceeding the weight named, £2 8s per week. For drivers of firewood carts the wage shall be £2 Ss per week. Overtime to be calculated after 47£ hours have been worked, but will not be payable for time necessarily occupied in stable attendance. Subject to the general conditions, the arrangement of hours ia left in the hands of the employer. Forwarding Agents, Carriers, and Parce| Delivery.— Weekfs hour*, 474, exclusive of meal-hours and stable attendance. Drivers of one-horse vehicles to receive £2 5s per week, and drivers of lorries, vans, and spring drays, oarts, and expresses drawn by two or more horses, £8 10s. Overtime, to h% calculated alter 47£ hours have been worked in aay one week. The arrangement of working within the restricted hours to be left to the employer. Laundry Men. — The weekfe work, 47^ hours, exclusive of meal hours and stable attendance. The hours are to be worked between 7 a.m. and midnight), in any day, and 1 employers ate given full discretion to arrange the hours from day to day. to meet the requirement* of their customers. Minimum wage <£2 6s per week. Overtime as stipulated in foregoing classes. The exigency of tha trade of laundrymen necessarily requiring at times the* delivery of goods, on Sundays and holidays, such drivets may ber called upon to deliver goods to customers on those days- without any extra' pay, but the time so occupied shall be counted in -the -total restricted hours for the week's work. Employers ehall so ar-. range .their 'business thas the smallest .amount of work shall : ba done on any one of such days. "'' Omnibus Drivers. — The week's wort to consist of 46 .hours. 'Each employer to have complete discretion in .the arrangement of the restricted working hours. Overtime is provided for. Minimum wage, for one-horse vehicles, £2 ss, for more -than one r £2 10s per week. Brewers' 'Draymen.^-All the provisions set forth in regard to forwarding agents to apply to draymen and carters eniployed in breweries, with this exception : — The preference to unionists" provided in the general clauses oi the award shail hot apply to brewers or ' their draymen or carters, the Court being of opinion that the special circumstances of tho brewesy trade justified it in exempting this trade, in respect of the draymen and carters, from such preference. Casual Labour. — Casual labour, which Is defined as including a driver who is not employed continually for .more Ih.ui one week, is to be paid for at the rate of Is l^d per hour, and Is 3d per hour for overtime, which commences after 10i hours have, been worked in any one dn} . Stable work to be included in the 10^hour period. Preference to Unionists. — Preferences of employment is given to members of the Drivers' Union upon the conditions usually laid down by the Court sinco Mr. Justice Cooper took up the Presidency. This sentence is added — "Bui this award shall not compel any employer to dismiss or refuse .employment to any perioa then, employed by him."

Until rules of the union are so altered as to comply, with the terms of the award, employers may employ any persori, but must not discriminate against unionists, and must not "do anything for the purpose of injuring the union, whether directly or indirectly. The preference clause does not apply to casual drivers. An employment book is to be kept in a place convenient for employers. Other Conditions. — Provision is made fop the 'rating of incompetent drivers. Except as otherwise stipulated, overtime is to be paid for at the rate of time and a quarter for the first two hours and time and a half afterwards. The holidays generally conceded are^ — New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, the Sovereign's Birthday, Labour Day, Anniversary Day, Prince of Wales's Birthday, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. No deduction is to be made from drivers' wages for those days. Wages are to be paid upon a regular day in each week, and within a quarter of an hour of knocking-off time. Pay day is to be fixed at the employer's discretion. Differences of opinion as to the meaning and intention of provisions of the award are to bo referred to the Chairman of. the Conciliation Board for final settlement, subject to appeal to the Court. Except where otherwise provided, drivers need not attend at the • stables before 7 a.m. and need not leave the stables before 7.45 a.m. In -all stabies where 15 or' more horses are kepfc a stableman shall be employed. Drivers are to groom and harness their horses. Where no stableman is kept, the driver, when it is hi 3 we^k on, shall feed and water the horses at 6 a.m., and also feed and water them between 7 and 8 p.m. Subject to the provision just starced, no driver on returning from his day"is work shall be kept in the stable for more than one hour. Nothing contaiijMGcl in the award is to be deemed to afloat or override any speoial provision applicable to carters or drivers i in a particular trade whose wages and conditions of employment have already been fixed wnd settled by any award of the Court Viovr in force. The award is limited to the city and suburbs of Wellington,, in eluding Petone and the Hutt, and will uemain in force from the 30th inst. to 'tie 30th November, 1963. In some remarks made on concluding the reading of the award, the President stated thaf, the Court had not seen its way to exclude Mr. Chalmers, cooper, from the dr spute. Mr. Chalmers urged, as the group.d of his application for exclusion, that h,e could send his casks more cheaply by rail than by cartage. This was not competition in the true sense of the word, and if Mr. Chalmers employed carts he must come under the award. The train couW. be used if he preferred that system. No hardship would be inflicted by bringing Mr. Chalmers under the award. With regard to the tribunal set up under the presidency of the Chairman of 4;he Conciliation Board for deciding questions of interpretation of the award in this dispute, his Honour remarked that a domestic tribunal of this sort was a good thing, but the Court could not allow the interpretation of its award to be placed entirely out of its own hands. This tribunal had been retained, but its powers had been modified to 'allow c& the dissenting parties— either the union on the one side or the employers on the other— the right to appeal to the Court to review the tribunal's decision. Concerning 'bus-drivers, .the Court could see no reason for creating special conditions to meet the case of Mr. Lyon, who employed drivers at a limited wage because he boarded them. The occupation of a 'bus-driver was one in which the public was directly interested, and was such that the Court hiid decided to fix a rate that would justify the employment of competent men. While differences were allowed as to hours and holidays, and it was left to some employers to arrange their own hours so long as the. total did not exceed the specified aggregate number, 'busdnvers ought to be within thfr scope of award in that their wages should be at least fixed at the minimum provided for drivers of expresses, vans and lorries. If the driver of a two-horse lorry or van carrying goods was entitled to £2 10s weekly— as was allowed by the consensus of opinion of the employers themselves — the driver of a 'bus, carrying human beings, was at least entitled to the same rate. In the coal trade, the chief question was that of wages, which were meed at £2 5s weekly where the bags did not exceed lewt, and £2 8s where they were in excess of lewt. The Court did not consider it fair that coal-drivers should be paid at a lower rate than drivers canying cither goods. The Court had been assisted very much by the fact that a far great,er majority of the employers considered a minimum of £2 5s fair lor drivers of onehorae lorries, and felt that it wbuHJr Hot be justified in giving coal-driverk 'de(livering coal in this city the same jroaae iiWith fegard to bugs of 1 to 11 op 2cwt ■tibe Court acted on the principle dfjextra strain payment. ' FARRIERS AND BLACKSMITHS. The award in the dispute.refbrifed to, 1 the Court by the Wellingtoß'Tanffes and General Blacksmiths' Industry 'Union of Workers was next delivered. It is igr have effect from 30th Nfcvßxwber,;; 235;, t£, November, 1903. The awarb! Wo^ (vides— (l) That only throe cW e s of labour shall be recognised, viz^joiimeyjnen, floormen, and apprtfnticy.. . (9\ the Ordinary weekfs worl sha^ ' lAnJS Jf (46 hours, not more foto^ S? or ? fdmary time to be woi*^ in juw one must not exceed T*s* ordl ? ary JT worked between. *°™/f™* ,xt Except as oth/ 7 . ama ' m - an ? } v :^- - ( •> mum rates of ' rwiS6 Folded the mmz•eeneral ami/ - wa S e snall be— lamer and adS !r A 109 a day, floorman 8s 6d ■all tun "' Excqjfc as otherwise provided be cC J o * ner *^ an ordinary time shall ;j or usidered overtime, and shall be paid iv,, at the rate of time and a quarter; v y jovided that all horses in hand for shoeing at the conclusion of fhe working day shall be finished before the workman engaged therein shall cease work ; and no overtime or extra payment shall be allowed to the workman engaged in finishing such shoeing. (5) All boys taken on after 30th November, 1901, shall be legally indentured for six years' apprent^ce»ship, if they are retained after an initial probation covering three months, and if they are thus retaineu~fae three months shall count as part of the?r apprenticeship. (6) The proportion of boys employed by any employer shall not exceed one boy to two tradesmen, An apprentice 3hall be entitled to a fire when he ihas served three years of his apprentice'ehip. In the case of small shops where Ino journeyman is employed one apprentice in each shop shall .be allowed. 17); ,'Arrangements existing between employers 'and apprentices shall not be prejudiced; ibut any employer, having an apprentice under any agreement shall within three months from 30th November cause such apprentice to be indentured for the un-' served portion of a six years' period fr<m tho time he entered^ his service, of this ,can be done without breach of any sta'/ute in force in the colony. (&7 The mirihnum rate of wages payable to apprentices shall be — First year 7s 6d a week, second 12s 6d, third 17s 6d, fourth £1 2s 6d, fifth £1 10s, sixth £2. (9) All statutory holidays — Christmas Day, Now Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, La- ■ bour Day, and the Sovereign's Birthday — shall be paid for at the usual rate, and work done on them at double rates. Overtime shall not be paid for shoeing horses which shall be in the shop at the ordinary time for ceasing work on the

day preceding such holiday, whether shoeing shall have been commenced or not. (10) The number of labourers shall be unrestricted, provided they are strictly confined to the work of labourers. Striking shall not be deemed to be within labourers' work. (11) Piecework shalP not be allowed except for shoe-turning. The preference clause (which does not apply to labourers) and the "employment book," and "incompetent" clauses are, inserted with the usual safeguards. The union demanded in the first place a 44 hours week, and has been granted 46. Tlje demands for farriers and general smiths were 12s, and for floormen 10s a day ; the award is 10s and 8s 6d respectively. The demand for time and a quarter payment for overtime is granted, with important restrictions. Five years' apprenticeship was asked for, and six is awarded. The other clauses of the award are approximately the same as the demands, excepting that piece-work is allowed in shoe-turning, and in apprentices' wages. The figures demanded in the latter case were— First year 10s, second 17s 6d; third 255, fourth £1 12s 6d, fifth 40s. BUILDING TRADES' LABOURERS. The Court also gave its award in the dispute referred to it by the Wellington Building Trades' Labourers Industrial Union of Workers, which will be in operation from 30th November, 1901, to 30th November, 1903. The award provides that— (l) Except during May, June, July and August, a full week's work shall be 45 hours, commencing at 8 a.m. and finishing at 5 p.m. During the months mentioned, the employer is to have the right to* require men to commence at 7.45 a.m. and to finish at 4.30 p.m., or at his or their discretion to commence at 8 a.m. . and finish at 4.45 p.m. When these hours are worked, half an hour shall be allowed for dinner, and threequarters of an hour during the remainder of the year, dinner-time to commence at j 12 noon. Saturday work is to be from 8 a.m. to 11.45* a.m. (2) All mqn employed' in assisting bricklayers,^ plasterers, and masons shall be paid not less than Is Id an hour ; general labourers, not less than Is an hour ; labourers, while employed as scaffolders, to be paid not less than Is 2d an hour. (3) All work beyond .the time stipulated shall be considered overtime, and shall be paid at time and a half till 9 p.m. and double time afterwards ; double time for statutory holidays ,and Sundays ;^ time and a half for all time worked (except as provided in clause 1), before 8 a.m. and during dinner-time ; " statutory holidays " to be as in the farriers' award ; ordinary time to be paid for necessary preliminary work in preparing material, etc., provided that such work shall not occupy mqre than half an hour before the usual time of commencing -work, and that not more than two men shall be thus employed. (4) Men shall be at their work at the appointed time, and that the employee shall, after \ proceeding a mile and a half, be paid ordinary wages io/t such time as he occupies in proceeding, at the rate of four miles an hour, the rea,t of the distance to his wo*k, if such work is located more than, a mile and a half from the Post Office. (5) Boys (defined as youths under 19 years) shall only be employed in labouring work in. the proportion of one boy to every four fully-paid labourers, but the. apprenticeship under the award of any youth.employed in assisting j^ny journeyman in his appointed trade shall not be affected by this clause. (6) All tools (except hod and short-handled shovel) shall be supplied by the employers. 1 Th© "preference" and "incompetent" clause are included. IRON-MOULDERS' CLAIMS. The Court entered upon the hearing of the dispute raised by the Wellington Iron and Brass Moulders' Industrial Union of Workers, for whom Messrs. D. M'Laren and E. Whitaker appeared. Mr. Winter Hall, who, in, negjy to Mr. M'Laren's query, stated that he was "not a solicitor," appeared for the employers, who contest all the clauses of the demands. The principal demands are for classification (journeyman and apprentice), 44 hours' week, Is 4sl an hour for journeyBKin moulder, overtime at .time and a' qaarter for first two hours, and time and a half thereafter, one boy to every 'journeyman, six years' apprenticeship for boys^at 6s a week first year and - annual 5s increase thereafter, prohibition, of piece wort and sub'corttractiiig, aitfl preference to unionists! Mi\ M'Laren called 1 Herbert Gaby ayd •, Richard Huntingdon, the latter of wb,6m jwpported the demands, and refarreoV. to fee tax that mooMing work placed on ttjfe constitution. The- "Court then adjourned till 2.30 P <m - .