BUTCHER DISPUTE

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 137, 8 December 1919, Page 7

BUTCHER DISPUTE

ARBITRATION AWARD

The award of the Arbitration Court has been filed in tho Wellington Operative Butchers' dispute, heard by the Court at its last session.

For all workers the hours of work shall be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on four days of the week, with one hour for dinner on each day. On Saturday the hours of work shall be from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., with half-an-hour for breakfast and one hour for dinner. On Wednesdays the hours shall be from 7 a.m. to 12 noon. In shops where the weekly half-holiday is on Saturday- the Wednesday hours shall be 7 a.an. to 5 p.m., with one hour for dinner, and on Saturday from 6 a.m. to 12 noon with half an hour for breakfast. A worker may be employed at any hour to supply shipping, provided that if tho time so occupied is in excess of the hours, provided under the Shops and OHices Acts, overtime shall be paid. Wages are fixed as follows .-—First shopman or man in charge, first smallgoods man, not less than £4 7s 6d per week; second shopman, £3 17s 6d per week; all other workers, £3 12s 6d per week, minimum rates. In addition to these minimum rates there shall be paid to the workers a bonus of 5s per week unless and until the Court shall otherwise order. Any worker receiving a higher rate of wages than the minimum rate shall not have Iris wages reduced in his present employment. All overtime shall be,paid for at the rate of time and a half, excluding in tho computation the 5s bonus. Casual workers are to be paid at the rate of not less than 2s per hour, with a minimum of six hours for any day. Boys and youths may be employed at not less than the following rates : Under 17, £1 7s 6d; 17 to 18, £1 12s 6d ;18 to 19, £2 2s 6d; 19 to 21, £2 15s. Provision is made for extra pay of 2s 6d. ss, and 7s 6d a week for hoys who have passed first,, second, and third year's examinations respectively on attending a course of instruction in butchery technique at a Technical College. The employment of female labour other than the wife or daughter of the employer is prohibited. Any employer who dees substantially the work of a shopman in his own shop shall be classed as first shopman. , Special provisions are made as to pork butchers' shops. B'emales of or over tho age of seventeen years may be employed as shop assistants in shops where the sole business carried on is that of a pork butcher. For such labour hours of work are not to exceed 47 per week, three days a week between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.' (not more thaji eight hours on each day); weekly half-holiday 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. (not more than four hours to be worked), and on Friday or Saturday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., with not more than nine hours to be worked on one day and not more than ten on the other. In such shops the hours of work for male workers shall be regulated by the Shops and Offices Act. Overtime shall be paid at a rate of time and a-half. The wages of females shall be : First year £1 5s per week, after one year's service £1 12s 6d, after two years'. service £2 per week, thereafter £2 10s per week. The duration of the award is from Ist January, 1920, to 20th October, 1921. In a memorandum attached to the award, the President of the Court (His Honour Mr. Justice Stringer) states that the' Court has made some slight modification in the hours of work to bring them into conformity with those obtaining in Auckland and elsewhere, as the Court sees no good reason why the workers in Wellington should be at a disadvantage in this respect. The additional Is per, week to the bonus has been granted in order to enable the Court to make a more equitable adjustment in the grading of the different workers.