LOW-WAGE GROUPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 8, 11 January 1944, Page 3

LOW-WAGE GROUPS

LEGISLATION PROMISED

The "Union Record," official paper of the New Zealand Building TradesFederation and a number of other unions, states that legislation to enable lower-paid workers to receive wage increases in spite of stabilisation is to be introduced by the Government. . , xi The paper also quotes a report to the Auckland Trades Council that the New Zealand Federation of Labour, which has also taken up the matter with the Government, has a definite undertaking that the wages of lower-paid workers will be raised to a minimum of £5 5s a week for males and £3 a week for females. "Since December, 1942, the General Labourers' Federation has been agitating and exerting pressure on the Government to have stabilisation removed from the lower-paid workers," says the "Union Record." Recently the Prime Minister met a deputation from the federation and gave an assurance that legislation along the lines suggested by the workers' representatives would be introduced. "The recent annual conference of the federation recommended that, if finality was not immediately reached, Miss Howard, M.P., the new secretary of the General Labourers' Federation, should place the matter before Parliament. "This matter is engaging the attention of the whole Labour movement and the New Zealand Federation of Labour is recommending to the Government that the minimum wage for males should be raised to £5 5s a week and for females to £3 a week.