AWARD TO BE MADE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 71, 25 March 1931, Page 14

AWARD TO BE MADE

FIBROUS PLASTERERS

At the conclusion of the addresses andi evidence in the Wellington fibrous plasterers' dispute yesterday afternoon, the Arbitration Court intimated that it would make, an award in accordance with the recommendations of the Conciliation Council and would decide the questions in dispute. Up to the present the industry haa been governed by the Factories Act. On behalf of the employers, Mr. W. J. Mountjoy said that notwithstanding the freedom of employment that had been possible under the Factories Act, the industry had been seriously faced with competition created by the importation of plaster boards from overseas. It had, however, been possible for the local manufacturers to obtain a proportion of the trade mainly because of the freedom tliat had obtained in regard to the employment of youths and the elasticity of hours per-mitted-by the Act. The employers viewed with concern the suggestion to. restriot unduly the employment of youths, also the restricting of the hours of work and the increasing of the rates of wages. Fibrous plaster manufacturing was a semi-skilled occupation, and was one of the few trades which presented an avenue of' employment to boys leaving primary school. If heavy'restrictions were placed 011 the employers they would have a most disastrous effect on the industry inasmuch as the manufacturers would be forced to increase the prices of their product and that would seriously affect the sale of the' locallymade article.