WATERSIDE WORKERS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 98, 22 October 1924, Page 6

WATERSIDE WORKERS

ARBITRATION' COURT PROCEEDINGS.' . , x

(BI TELF3RAPH.—r R ESS ASSOCIATION.) DUNEDIN, This Day. At the Arbitration Court, in the wutersido -workers' dispute, Mr. Smith representing the employers,'in reply to Mr. Roberts's contention, on behalf of the federation for an increase in wages, argued that a great deal of irrelevant matter, had been introduced/ and that a fair comparison could not be made with Australia, where there wore, no central pay offices and where the information available was incomplete and unsatisfactory. At the four main "ports in iSe.v Zealand the average ' hours worked by men who had marked 39 Sveeks and over during the year were 35.64 hours, made up of. 27-52 ordinary time and 6.12 overtime, with an average wage, of £4 9s 8d per week. There, were- a number of special cargoes in New /Zealand for which extra rates were paid, and these had to be included in computation, with the result- that the average basic wage' for ordinary time worked out on the lowest possible method at 2s and 3.14 d per hour, giving an average weekly wage of £4 0s 7d, which was substantially in excess of the Gourt's basic-wage for unskilled workers. ■"