IN SEAMEN'S DISPUTE

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 77, 1 April 1922, Page 9

IN SEAMEN'S DISPUTE

THE COURT TO DECIDE

P. AND O. COMPANY ATTACKED.

The hearing of the Wellington seamen's dispute was continued before the Conciliation Commissioner (Mr. W. Newton) after The Post werft to press yesterday. No agreement was arrived at, and the dispute was referred to the Arbitration Court for decision. Assessors for the shipowners were Messrs. W. J. Smith, J. Smith, and W. H. G. Bennett, and for the union Messrs. W. T. Young, T. F. Anderson, and W. R. Clarke. , Concluding his case for the owners, Mr. W. J. Smith stated that in 1914 a trimmer was getting £8 per month, whereas the rate to-day was £15 7s, an increase oi over 90 per cent. The higheat increase in the cost of living was j 78 per cent. It was not admitted that the cost of living came into the matter'! at all, because seamen were fed and lodged by the employer. A very large proportion of seamen were single men, but, taking the matter on the married mp.n's basis, the increase in wages had been very considerably more than the increase in the cost of living. The cost uf living had fallen 31 per cent., so on that ground alone the owners were entitled to ask for a substantial reduciion. ■ Mr. Young: " In the cost of living?" Mr. Smith: "No; in wages." Mr. Young: " You* have got it," LOWERING THE COSTS. Mr. Smith said the owners were not asking . the union to go back to 1914 junditions "by » V>ng chalk." The itioUtution of the eight-hour day and varies other clauses in the agreement had involved an increase in overtime payments, the aggregate payments of which •.vere now slightly double what they vsere in 1914. So far as overtime was concerned, the owners were only asking for a return to the rate prevailing under the 1917 agreement—namely, 2a per hour, instead of 2s 6d. Seventy-five per cent, of the business of the Union Company was done outside New Zealand. The company was not purely a coastal concern. " That has become purely a comparatively small part of our business," continued Mr. Smith. "If we are to compete with outsiders and give employment to New Zealand seamen, we must be able to get our run-' rung costs down somehow. Wto must at least balance our income and expenditure, which we are not d,°inß at the present time. That is the position in l.i-.ef." • . On behalf of the small shipowners, .Mr. Bennett 6aid the time had arrived when they should be under a separate agreement. The very fact that Mr. Smith had stated that 75 per cent, of the largest convnany'g work was done overseas.gave point to the speaker's contention that a separate agreement for the small boat owners was necessary' The small owners agreed with, all that Mr. Smith had said.