FULL AGREEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 1, 1 July 1926, Page 7

FULL AGREEMENT

THE NORTHERN COLLIERIES

SOME INCREASES IN WAGES.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, 30th June. A conference between the North j Island coal mine-owners and union representatives concluded at Huntly today with an agreement on all questions in dispute.l The new agreement was approved by both parties,, the men's delegates, however, making their consent subject to ratification by the unions. The mines affected by the agreement are those of Glen Afton, Pukemiro, Waipa, and Taupiri. With respect to the remaining mines, Hikurangi and Wilson's Collieries, certain clauses of local application were deferred for consideration in Auckland to-morrow. - In accordance with an undertaking given by the union delegates yesterday, the men will work eleven days per fortnight, thus continuing the previous practice of working on Saturday mornings. Piece rates of pay remain unaltered, but wage rates have been increased in some instances to bring them to the level of rates existing in the West Coast collieries. No increases have been granted to boys under seventeen years of age, and of the total adult wages about 50 per cent remain unaltered. The unions having cancelled their registration under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, preference to unionists was withheld until such time as they register themselves under the Incorporated Societies Act, as they have agreed to do, or alternately until they agree to register the agreement arriyed at as provided by the Labour Disputes Investigation Act. The duration of the agreement is two years from the date of its ratification. It will come into force at the commencement of «the first pay fortnight after ratification.