MOTOR MECHANICS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 34, 10 February 1915, Page 8

MOTOR MECHANICS

■ AWARD PROPOSALS. Before the Conciliation Court this morning, Mr. P. Hally (Conciliation Commissioner) presiding, the application of the Motor Mechanics' Unior for an industrial agreement was considered. On the condition that an award, if agreed upon, should not come into operation until the Court of ' Arbitration is satisfied that conditions in the industry are normal, an agreement was come to by the parties at Palmerston North, Wanganui, Napier, and Masterton. The agreement embodies the following conditions:— Hours are not to exceed forty-eight per week. Overtime is provided for on the usual conditions, also working on certain holidays. Wages are fixed at Is 3d per hour for cycle mechanics, and Is 4£d for motor mechanics. Apprentices are to serve five years, their wages to range from 7s 6d to 355, and they are only allowed in the proportion of one apprentice to two journeymen, or fraction of tho first two, but when an ap* prentice has completed his third year, the employer may take on a fresh' apprentice. Improvers serve a term of one year, and have to be paid 50s per week. Present arrangements in respect to apprentices are not interfered with, provided that the employer shall, witlu'n one month of the publication of the award, send notice of the arrangement to the Inspector of Factories in the district. In the preference clause, the employers are relieved of any responsibility in this matter, and under no circumstances can an employer be prosecuted for any breach, but an employee taking engagement in future must join the union upon receipt of a request from the secretary, and unless he does so within seven days is liable for a breach of the award. At this morning's sitting of the council, the assessors were t For the union, Messrs. T. Bruce, W. Bell, and A. Freeman ; for the employers, Messrs. Inglis, J. Bett (Palmerston North), G. A. Scott, and H. Rodgers. Mr. W. A. Grenfell, secretary of the Employers' Association, etated that the parties had met, and did not consider the time was opportune for making any alterations in the existing condition* of the industry. The council went into committee, and the Commissioner afterwards intimated that, in view of the fact that an agreement had been arrived at between the parties in Palmerston North, Wanganui, Napier, and Masterton, the council would recommend that the Wellington em* ployers should meet again within three weeks, anH consider the latest phase of the agreement arrived at in Masterton. This was agreed to by the representa* tives of the employers, and the position is now that the Wellington employers will indicate through Mr. Grenfell whether they will meet the employees in three weeks' time or whether they propose to adhere to their original decision not to proceed with the dispute.