Clerks Claim That Big Rise in Wages is Inescapable

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22872, 16 February 1949, Page 8

Clerks Claim That Big Rise in Wages is Inescapable

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 15. A substantial upward revision of rates of pay for clerical workers was inescapable, submitted the advocate for the workers, Mr. A. S. Herring, during the hearing of the New Zealand clerical workers’ dispute before Mr. Justice Tyndall in the Arbitration Court today. Mr. Herring quoted the recent award for carpenters and joiners and said that their hourly rate had been increased by the Court from 3/7 to 3/9J, a margin of 2Jd hourly above the standard wages pronouncement of 1947. Mr. Justice Tyndall said that when the Court decided the carpenters’ dispute it was for them and nobody else. * Mr. Herring said the whole eyes of the workers were on. the Court and every little upward movement meant that every worker felt he should share it. Mr. Justice Tyndall: Most of the time here you are dealing with worker versus worker instead of worker versus employer. Suppose we gave the carpenters a rise because they had special features that were not applied in other industries? His Honoiir added that if the Court could not make any adjustment in particular industries without involving demands from all other industries it would put the Court in an impossible position. He later said: “I take it that the general plea of the unions is that we want everything that everyone else has, plus something more for ourselves.” Mr. Herring: Human' nature has always been like that and will continue to be so. His Honour: Fair comment (proceeding).