ANNIVERSARY DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 123, 26 May 1945, Page 9

ANNIVERSARY DAY

CARPENTERS' REQUEST

'-'It is particularly galling for the building workers to see the majority of people enjoying themselves on Anniversary Day while they are expected to work." said Mr. R. Stanley, when making submissions for a new award before the Arbitration Court in Wellington yesterday on bqhalf of the New Zealand Carpenters and Joiners and Joiners' Machinists' Industrial Union of Workers (with the exception of the Wellington. Nelson, Otago, and Southland districts). The inclusion of Anniversary Day as a holiday was asked for by the applicants, who also requested that the new award should cover the whole of the Dominion.

The Wellington branch of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, likewise the Otago branch, were joined as applicants to the dispute, at the wish of the Conciliation Council. Three sittings of the council had been held in Wellington, stated Mr. Stanley, but. it had been impossible to obtain agreement on all issues,, so a case had been stated for the Court. If the employers would co-operate, full-time employment could be obtained, even in winter, he said. That had been proved on defence construction in Auckland, and it was in the interests of the community generally. "The employers submit that in all cases where alterations are requested in conditions of employment the onus of proof of the need for such alteration rests entirely on the applicants," said Mr. Mountjoy (for the New Zealand Federated Builders' and Contractors' Industrial Association of Employers). The employers also submitted that there was no real need to alter any of the conditions of the current award that had not already been altered. That fact had been proved by j the recommendations of the Conciliation Council. With all the privileges received by workers during the past year, such as annual holidays and increased wages, he thought they had been more than generously treated at the expense of the people having building work carried out, and it was contended that some effort, should be made to at least keep the cost of. building within reasonable limits.

The Court reserved its decision