STATEMENT BY MAYOR.

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 98, 26 April 1916, Page 8

STATEMENT BY MAYOR.

This letter was referred to the Mayor (Mr. 3. P. Luke), who recommended that the matter should be referred to the Finance Committee for its consideration, and if the committee thinks' expedient, for submission tortile council as a whole. Under these circumstances he declined to make any statement. He, however, submitted the scale of pay as decided in June, 1915, by the Finance Committee, showing the adjustment of wages, taking the wages paid to the general labourers as a basis and making proportionate increases in other branches. This shows 'the increases in full time weekly earnings to be as follow : —General labourers (permanent), £2 16s 2d (old rate £2 12s 4d) ; genera] labourers (casual), to £2 18s 2d (£2 16s 2d) ; general drivers, £2 14s 3d (£2 lls); drivers of street-cleaning carts, £2 16s 2d (£2 13s) ; drivers of brooms, £2 18s 2d (£2 15s 6d); drivers of house refuse carts, £3 2s (£3); destructor hands, £3 2s per week of six shifts (£3). UNION'S VIEWPOINT. A statement on the same subject was made to a reporter by Mr.' M. J. Reardon,' secretary of the General Labourers' Union. Mr. Reardon. said that apparently the city fathers felt that they were more competent judges than those whose special duties it was to attend to this work—the Arbitration Court. "The council made the statement that it was now paying more than the award rate, plus 10 per cent. This cannot be borne out by reference to either the award of the Court or the council's own agreement. The Court's award, which was made in September, 1913, a. year before ■the war, provides for a minimum of Is 2d an hour for a 47-hour week, or a total -weekly sum of £2 Us 7d. Ten per cent, on this would bring the workers' wages up to £3 0s 3d. The wages paid by the City Council, including the increase granted last- year, are: Permanent hands £2 16s 2d, casuals £2 18s 2d. The agreement, which was made in October, 1913, provides that the men receive £2 12s id for 4Gj hours, Casuals, at Is 2^d an hour, earned £2 16s 2d when fchey worked a full week. Ten per cent, added to the agreement rate would make the wages of the permanent hands £2' 17s ■ 6d, and of the casuals £3 Is 9d for a .full week. Apart from these facts, I claim that the recommendation of the Court was for a 10 per cent, increase on the present rates. Employers have always claimed, and the Court has repeatedly stated, that the minimum fixed in an award is not' to be regarded as the ruling rate of wages. As showing that the 10 per €eilfc. is not confined to the minimum rate, the Court has itself t in the Auckland award, given a 10 per cent, bonus to men whose wages were fixed at Is 4^-d an hour. Mining companies on: the West Coast, whose employees certainly earn more than Is 2d a.n hour, have accepted the recommendation in the proper spirit. It is a matter for very great regret that a responsible body like the Wellington City Council should set such little value on an important recommendation of the tribunal most competent to determine the question. By contrast, it may be noted that the Christ-church City Council gavft its employees an increase of 10 per cent, immediately after the recom- j mendation was made public."