WATERSIDE PAY

Grey River Argus, 5 December 1924, Page 3

WATERSIDE PAY

THE NEW AWARD. HALF-PENNY AN HOUK LISE. WELLINGTON, December 4. The Arbitration Court has increase-1 the basic, wage of the Dominion waterside workers from 2/2 to 2/21 per hour. Mr Hiram Hunter dissented on the ground that the regular workers averaged only 32 hours weekly, and the basic, rate should be 2/5’ per hour. The usual preference clause i- in sorted with the addition that provision is made by agreement between the Waterside Workers’ Federation and the Employers’ Federation to limit the membership at any particular port, where the number is deemed to be excessive for the carrying out of the work. With regard to the alteration in the preference clause, the Arbitration Court says: The most important change we have made in the award is in the preference clause. The Court has :»1 ways maintained tin' policy of the open union, but it recognises the wa terfront is a place to which the unemployed of all trades gravitate. The waterside workers ’ unions hccordingly have to carry more than their fair share of unemployed, nnd the consequent increase in the membership reduces the earning capacity of the greater number <>f their members. We have endeavoured l<> decasualise wa terside work as far as possible bv providing a system of limitation of membership of the unions based on the labour requirements in the different ports. This will not prevent the employment of non-union labour in rush times, but it is hoped that it will diminish the number of so-called “fringe” of men who frequent the wharves on the chance of picking up occasional .jobs.