DOMINION DRIVERS

Evening Star, Issue 17919, 15 March 1922, Page 3

DOMINION DRIVERS

SEEK NEW AWARD. HIGHER WAGES, SHORTER HOURS. Tho demands for a new award' to replace the current award, which expires on March. 17, have been placed before employers bv the New Zealand Drivers' Federation, who also ask for a conference. The federation asks that a week's work shall consist of forty-seven hours, and that if more than eight and a-half hours are worked on any one of five days of tho week, or four and a-half hours on the day of tho weekly half-holiday, the excess shall be paid for at overtime rates. The same hours and overtime conditions are sought for stablemen and grooms. It is also asked that one hour shall bo allowed for dinner, and that employers shall keep a time book, in which each driver shall enter daily the total hours for which he is entitled to be paid, stating any overtime worked. The wages demanded are as follow : —Drivers of one horse, £4 10s; drivers of two horses, £4 12s 6d; for each additional horse, 4s per week extra. Drivers of motor vehicles with a carrying capacity of from scwt to 1 ton, £4 13s; same between 1 and 2 tone, £4 15s 6d; same between 2 and 3 tons, £4 18s; over 3 tons, £5 Is 6d; head stablemen, £6; stablemen, £5 2s 6d; grooms, £4 12s; drivers' assistants, £4 12s. Drivers to receive extra payment of Is for each clay, or part of a day, they are engaged carting lime, cement, manure, plaster, crude oil in casks, and tar; the employer to provide overalls for drivers engaged on such work. In respect to casual drivers, tho federation asks that ordinary rates of pay ho increased hy 2d per hour, and overtime rates by 3d per hour, and that the daily hours be reduced from nine and a-half to eight and a-half. For youths an increase oE 2s 6d per week is sought, the bonus to be added to the basic rate, while overtime is required to bo increased to Is 9d per hour. No change is desired in tho holidays, but an. increase to 3s 6d per hour is demanded for work done on Sundays, Clirismas Day, and Good Friday, and an increase to 2s 6d per hour for ordinary holidays. Fourteen days' annual leave is sought for stablemen. A 3d all-round increase in overtime rates is another demand made on the employers. Other clauses are asked to bo added to the award governing special conditions of work.