COUNCIL WAGES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 27, 2 February 1943, Page 4

COUNCIL WAGES

£5 WEEKLY MINIMUM

UNION'S REQUEST-

A request that the City Council should not seek to have all its works declared essential, thereby preventing men from leaving to accept higher wages, was made to the council yesterday by a deputation from the Wellington Local Bodies' Union, which also urged that no employee should be paid less than* £5 a week.

The basic rate paid by the council, said Mr. P. M. Butler, secretary of the union, was 2s 5d per hour, or £4 16s 8d per week; the cost of living bonuses and an extra amount of 10s gave the worker £5 6s Bd. Less tax, superannuation, and, in cases, sick benefit payments, the net wage was £4 4s. Health, waterworks, and drainage were already declared essential industries. If the definition of essentiality were to apply to all council work, workers would not be allowed to leave their work without an appeal to the man-power committee. These were not normal times, and workers were looking for a wage basis on which they could keep themselves decently. The net income for a man and wife on 2s 5; 4 'd per hour was £4 15s lOd a week. Quoting an individual budget, he said that house rent cost £1 5s 6d, travelling to work ss, grocer £1. baker ss, butcher 6s, electric light, cooking, and hot water (electric) ss, coal 3s lOd, insurance 4s, friendly society, including insurance and sick benefit fund, 2s. 3d, fruit and vegetables 3s, clothing and footwear ss. milk 2s lid, newspapers, periodicals, and stamps 2s 6d, radio licence, union subscription, and unemployment levy Is 6d; total, £4 11s 6d. That left a balance of 4s 4d for incidental expenses. No man, he considered, should receive a basic wage of less than £5, which was about the lowest that a married man could live on; if he had dependants it was not sufficient. The Petone Council wage was £4 7s 6d, which with bonuses gave the basic worker £5 10s. The City Council should not tie a man to 2s s^d when he could get more elsewhere. "MEASURE OF HUMANITARIANISM." In answer to Councillor R. A. Wright, who suggested«that if this application were granted others would also seek an increase, Mr. Butler said, that they were not asking for a general increase, but for a measure of humanitarianism —that no man should receive less than £5. That would not affect the general policy of wages. They were merely asking that with the different value of money the wage should now be made £5. .Councillor W. A. Gaudin: Do you suggest that it should be in the way of a war bonus? Would not that affect the stabilisation of wages?—l do not think it would. The Mayor (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop): As I understand it, you cannot have any increase except through conciliation or arbitration. Councillor R. McKeen, M.P.: I think Mr. Butler means that the council should stabilise the wage of married men at £5. The Mayor: I think that is contrary to what is being done generally. The regulations made provision for anomalies, said Mr. Butler. Surely there was an anomaly in a man on 2s 53d in Wellington paying the rent he did. and one living in a smaller place paying much less. EXTRA HOURS? Could not the men be asked to work extra hours? asked Councillor W. Appleton. The council simply could not get the labour, and everyone had to stand his share of the war burden. He did not believe that it was a question of essentiality. The work was there to be done. . Councillor J. D. Sievwright: I think this is a matter for the Court. Why not go there with it? Mr. Butler: We are debarred from going to the Court because the award is for two years and does not expire until the end of the year. The representations of the deputation are to be considered by the council.