WATERSIDERS’ BARGAIN

Evening Star, Issue 26029, 18 February 1947, Page 6

WATERSIDERS’ BARGAIN

SOME DETAILS LEAK OUT £5 WEEKLY GUARANTEED DAILY ATTENDANCE FEE OF 7/A guaranteed weekly wage of £5, with provision for two hours’ daily attendance money totalling 7s at present rates, is tho principal feature of tho settlement as reported betweon tho Government and the Watorside Workers’ Union.

This represents a considerable improvement; over tho existing guarantee of £3 Os a woek, and is payable not only in the four main ports, as in tho past, but in most of the secondary ports. 1 This agreement assures every man of £5 worth of work every week. If it is not offering then he gets its equivalent in cash.

In addition, though lie may have earned £5 in (say) tho first three days iof the week, he will still bo entitled to two hours’ attendance money for each of the remaining days on which ho repdrts for duty, whether work is offering or not. The present hourly rate is 3s 5Jd, but for attendance money purposes the two hours pay would be assessed as 7s.

This is the main feature of the new agreement. - PUBLIC MUST WAIT FOR NEWS. . The official terms, however, are still awaited, and have still not been supplied to the Waterside' Employers’ Association. The settlement is being placed before the branches of the Waterside Workers’ Union, whose members will hear the decision before it is communicated to the employers or the public.

The public announcement is nmy 'expected on Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

The settlement was placed before a stop work meeting of. the, Wellington branch of the Waterside Workers’ Union to-day. The secretary, Mr E. A. Napier, reported afterwards that after a "■ comprehensive, discussion, the reports from the, national executive were adopted. \