DRIVERS' DISPUTE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 32, 6 August 1936, Page 10

DRIVERS' DISPUTE

DOMINION HEARING

ALMOST COMPLETE SETTLEMENT

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

With the exception of drivers employed by local bodies, an almost complete settlement has been reached in the Dominion motor and horse dri%'ers! dispute. A full . agreement was reached on the important points of wages, hours of work, "overtime rates, and holidays. No was reached as far as local body employees are concerned, and this dispute will be reopened at a meeting in Wellington on September 4.

For city and suburban drivers the hours of work were agreed upon for a 44-hour week spread over six days, with not more than nine hours in any one day. The, wages operating at March 31, 1931, were agreed to, these being as follows: —One-horse drivers, £4 8s a week; two-horse drivers, £4 11s; drivers of motor vehicles of a combined weight of vehicle and load not exceeding two tons, £4 11s; two to four tons, £4 13s 6d; four to five tons and a half, £4 16s; five tons and a, half to ten tons, £5; over ten tons, £5 3s; drivers of tractors, £4 15s. Overtime payments were fixed at time and a half where' overtime is worked outside the daily or weekly hours, except that double time shall be paid for work between midnight and 6 a.m. Holidays were agreed upon as granted in 1931, with the addition of one week's annual holiday on full pay. ROAD TRANSPORT. The hours of work for road transport drivers were fixed at 88 a fortnight, the daily hours and the daily span of hours to be limited in accordance with the number prescribed in the licence of a goods operator. Wages! were fixed as follows:—Motor vehicles up to one ton of combined weight, £4 13s a week; one to two tons, £4 16s; two tons to four tons and a half, £4 18s 6d; four tons and a half to six tons and a half, £5 2s; over six tons and a half, £5 ss. Flat rates of "overtime were agreed to as follows:—2s lOd an hour for trucks up to two tons; 2s lid for trucks from two tons to four tons and a half; 3s for trucks over four tons and a half. In lieu of the statutory holidays these workers were granted twelve days' holiday on full pay in each year. It. was also agreed that as far as possible they should be granted as holidays Anzac Day, Good Friday, and Christmas Day, or three other days to be substituted for them. It was agreed that the hours of work provision should operate from September 1 and other provisions from August 21. In those districts where no award is at present in force a 48-hour week is to operate until September 1.