WHEAT CARGOES AND A PRINCIPLE.

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 18, 22 January 1916, Page 12

WHEAT CARGOES AND A PRINCIPLE.

An important principle'concerning the minimum wage was. enunciated by Mr. Justice Higgiris in the Federal Arbitration Court recently, when giving ' his decision upon an application for variation of certain provisions of. the Federal waterside workers' award. His Honour referred to the question of loading wheat cargoes, a matter which, according to the cablegrams, has been causing some trouble. He said : " Mr. Cohen . has again urged that ■ I should put wheat amongst the recognised special cargoes ; that I should treat the payment.of an extra 3d per. hour> ..which the wheat carriers in Port Jackson forced upon.the reluctant oversea company.in September, 1911, as if it were an the same, level as the deliberate written agi cements made .with the union and set out in clause 9: of the.award. As I have already stated, /the payment was.not the result of an agreement made with the federation) or oven with the Sydney branch,. and it was never intended by the" employers to be permanently binding-. It was not even a. universal practice in Port Jackson, but, on the other hand,- it is not. necessarily an unjust extortion ■ for a man, or" for a class of men who make wheat carrying a specialty, to demand more than tha minimum' rate for his or their services. li> is quite in harmony with the principle of freedom of contract subject to. the minimum wage.that an employer should seek by.extra wages to attract men who, as he thinks, will give him extra speed arid efficiency. The device of the minimum wage will soon prove to be a bane instead of a blessing if the position be perverted as the arguments tend to pervert it. I can only say plainly that there is no breach of the award or impropriety in a man refusing his services in loading wheat unless the employer .pay him more, than the minimum. It is all a matter for contract." Apart from its relation to the particular question of wheat cargoes this is a most important pronouncement on the principles involved in the award of a minimum wage, and the right of a worker to refuse, if he thinks.fit, to work for the minimum rate.