PLUMBERS' AWARD IN THE DOMINION DISPUTE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 72, 26 March 1914, Page 8

PLUMBERS' AWARD IN THE DOMINION DISPUTE

HIGHER WAGES FOR REGISTERED MEN. The award in the dispute between the New Zealand Federated Plumbers and Gasfitters' Industrial Association • of Workers and the New Zealand Federation of Master Plumbers' Industrial Association of Employers, which was heard in the Aibitration Court at Wellington, has been filed by the Clerk of Awards. The schedule stipulated that the hours of work shall be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on Saturday, when they shall be from 8 a.m. to noon. One hour shall be allowed for dinner on each day except Saturday, but an employer may agree with his workers to allow half an hour for dinner during the period from Ist May to 31st August, &o that the work shall cease at 4.30 p.m. instead, of 5 p.m. The overtime clause provides that all time worked outside the hours prescribed shall be paid for as follows :—: — First two hours, time and a-quarter; then time and a-half, until midnight ; thereafter, double time until 8 a.m. For work done on Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Easter Monday, Labour Day, and the birthday of the reigning sovereign, and after 1 p.m. on the day. of the weekly half-holiday time and ahalf, shall be paid. For work done on Christmas Day, Good Friday, and on Sundays double time shall be paid. If any day shall be generilly observed as a holiday in lieu of the holidays mentioned, such day, for the purposes of the award, shall be substituted for the specified holiday. The minimum wage for a plumber or gasfitter registered under the Plumbers' Registration Act, 1912, is fixed at Is 6d per hour, and for all other journeymen Is 5d per hour. Workers carrying materials or a kit of tools to or from the shop or place of work .outside the hours specified ' are to be paid at the rate of time and aquarter. In the case of dismissal (except for misconduct) or of any worker leaving of his own accord, not less than two hours' notice shall be given on either side. SUBURBAN AND COUNTRY WORK " Suburban work" in the case of Dunedin employers shall mean work outside a radius of one mile and aAfcalf from the Chief Post Office, in the case of Wellington employers 'outside a radius of two miles from the employer's place of business, and in the cas? of all other employers work performed outside a radius of one mile and a-half from the employer's place of business, but will not in any case include work which comes within the definition of country work. Provision is made for payment of travelling time for men living outside certain distances from their employment. A worker using a bicycle is to be paid for the use of such bicycle at the rate of Id per mile or portion of a mile. '"Country work" means work which necessitates his lodging elsewhere than at his usual place of residence. Travelling expenses and time occupied in travelling are to be paid, and while on country work men are to be paid 3s 4d per day extra, unless suitable board and lodgings are provided by the employer. No piecework is to be allowed. APPRENTICES. The -proportion of apprentices is not to exceed one to two journeymen, or fraction of the first two, and the period of apprenticeship is six years, three months' probation being allowed. The minimum pay for apprentices is to be : First year 6s, second 10s, third 15s, fourth 21s, fifth 27s 6d, sixth 35s per week. Any youth who has served part of his apprenticeship in any part of the Empire may finish the term of six years in the Dominion. The preference clause provides that any worker hereafter engaged who is not a member of the union, and who does not within fourteen days become a. member, shall be dismissed if the union so requests, provided there is a unionist available who is qualified to carry out the work. An under-rate workers' clause is also provided, and the award, which comes into force on 6th April, 1914, and continues until 31st December, 1916, applies to the Northern, Taranaki, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago, and Southland industrial districts. "INDUCEMENT TO QUALIFY." In a memorandum attached to the award, the President (Mr. Justice Stringer) states' it is based for the most part upon the recommendation of the Conciliation. Councils in different parts of the Dominion. The preference clause, however, had been modified so as to bring it into conformity with prior Dominion awards. "We repeat," says the memorandum, "that except under special circumstances the Court, in making a Dominion award, will adhere to what is known as the Court's clause relating to •preference. We have thought it proper to offer some inducement t£ workers to qualify themselves for the -higher ■ branches of the industry, and we have, therefore, differentiated between the registered and unregistered plumber, awarding the wage of Is 6d per hour to the former and Is 5d per hour to the latter. The wage of Is 5d is conceded on the basis of the voluntary agrepmenl on the part of the master plumbers of Auckland to pay that rate. If this .agreement had not been made we should probably have fixed the wage of the unregistered plumber at Is 43d, that being the rate arrived at by thei Court after consideration of many cases. . ." When the dispute was before the Court the union demanded a forty-four hours' week (which has been granted), whereas the employers contended that a reduction from forty-five to forty-four would have a disturbing effect on the trade. A minimum rate of Is 6d per hour for journeymen plumbers and gas'fitters, 2d an hour extra for leading hands, *and Is a day extra for dirty work, were asked by the union, also tho abolition of piecework, and apprentices' wages as follow : — First year, 7s 6d ; second, 10s ; third, 17s 6d ; fourth. 255 ; fifth, 32s 6d ; sixth, £2. The employers proposed Is 5d per hour for registered plumbers and Is 3d an hour for unregistered plumbers. The present rate for less qualified workers is Is 3d, and for more qualified men Is 5d an hour.