WAGES IN WELLINGTON

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 32, 7 August 1919, Page 8

WAGES IN WELLINGTON

DIFFERENTIAL RATES WANTED.

On. numerous occasions in the past the Arbitration Court has been asked to grant differential Tafes of wages for Wellington, because it ,hae been revealed by the Government Statistician that it costs more to live in the capital . city_ ' than elsewhere in New Zealand. This the Court has refused to do, but it is likely that a determined attempt will be made to induce the Court to agree to this plan. The Wellington Grocers' Assistante' Union has' written to the Trades*and Labour Council, asking that, 'in view of the recent decisions of the Arbitration Court making the Wellington rates uniform with those ruling in other parts, the council should circularise affiliated organisations with .the idea, of citing a test case which would include a demand for a differential rate for Wellington It is suggested that, in the hourly wage, there should be an increase of 2d in Wellington, and, in the weekly wage, an increase'of 7s. The grocers point out that taking the Government Statistician's abstract dealing with 'the three .food" groups and his rent y table, the wages of workers in Wellington should be 7s per weeks over and above those ruling in other centres, if equality of treatment is to be maintained. They claim, therefore, that the unions in the city should demand ,the differential rate named. • At the Arbitration Court's sittings in Wellington the grocers asked ; for £3 15s, but -\v,ere given, exactly the same rate as that granted to tha Aucklarid grocers, namely, £3 12s. "This means," said one of the. officials of the union to a Post' reported, "that, although we receive the same rate as Auckland, we are actually 7s worse .off. We claim that it is the duty of the Court, when fixing wages, to inquire into the cost of living,, and upon-what other basis could the Court base its calculations other than on the Government Statistician's figures? We are satisfied that we will receive the support of all the . other . Wellington unions in our request for a: differential rate, for the'present position is causing a certain amount of dissatisfaction."