EMPLOYERS' STATEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 42, 18 February 1921, Page 7

EMPLOYERS' STATEMENT

BONUS QUESTION THE ROOT OF

THE TROUBLE.

The full text of the employers' statement is appended :— • :

On 20th December last the rflfresefotatives of the Employers of Waterside Labour throughout the Dominiou met those of the Waterside Workers' Federation-in. conference on the subject of wages, but the claims of the latter were so far in excess of anything the shipowners could grant that they could not be entertained. After a full disrussion t'«p employers announced" that "under all the circum^i stances they could not see their way to advance the wages of the Waterside workers to any greater extent than the equivalent of the bonus granted by the Arbitration Court to workers in other', industries, which, in the case of the watei'eide workers, amounted to. Id per, hour on the. basis of. an average of 36 hours per w%ek, making 3s per week. It was made quite clear that this offer was final, and was the absolute limit to which I the employers were prepared to go. Despite this unequivocal intimation of the viewg of the employers, however, tho Waterside Workers' Federation, after, submitting the offer to the consideration of tins various waterside unions, announced on ISth January to the employers that It had been rejected, and made a request for another conference on the subject. As it wasSimpossible for the employers to reconsider ,the offer they had previously made, it was felt, especially after, the clear definition of their attitude "on. the question given to the federation representatives at the confer-, ence in December, that no good purpose would be served by calling together again tiie delegates from all parts of the Dominion, and the request was therefore declined. ~