COURT'S PRONOUNCEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 60, 8 September 1937, Page 12

COURT'S PRONOUNCEMENT

SKILLED RATE 29 PER HOUR

(By Telegraph—Pres3 Association.)

AUCKLAND, This Day

A pronouncement on standard wages was made by Mr. Justice O'Regan on behalf of the Court of Arbitration this morning. The written judgment occupies four foolscap pages, while the dissenting opinion of Mr. W. Cecil Prime, the employers' representative, occupies eleven pages. . "Having heard the evidence and the argument," states the Court's pronouncement, "the Court has now considered the question of standard rates of wages and has decided that, apart from special considerations, rates for the several classes of workejs shall be:— Skilled.—2s 9d per hour. Semi-skilled.—2s 5d to 2s 7-Jd per hour. Unskilled.—2s 4d per hour. "These minimum rates are intended as general standard minima for casual labour and hence they are not necessarily applicable where employment is regular throughout the year. On the other hand there may be additional payment where circumstances warrant it, as where work is carried on under exceptionally unpleasant conditions, or where special care or experience is required." Mr. Prime, in his dissenting opinion, states that having regard to essential considerations, he could not agree that the rates to be adopted by the Court should be any higher than "skilled labour, 2s 7d per hour; semi-skilled, 2s 2-kl to 2s sd; and unskilled, 2s Hd. These rates in my opinion would put the workers in a better position than ever beforr. They may not be .^varranted by economic conditions, especially as they are based upon the assumption that industry can pay as much for forty hours' work, as for forty-four." The Court makes little reference to the workers' plea tor weekly wages, but only makes the pronouncement on an hourly basis.