NEW AWARD FOR LINESMEN

Hawera Star, Volume L, 19 December 1930, Page 5

NEW AWARD FOR LINESMEN

WAGE'S TNICRiEAS® GRANTED | (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Dec. IS. An increase of one half-penny an hour in wages- has been granted toy the Arbitrationi Court to two of six classes of workmen covered by th-c northern district electrical workers’ award. 1 Bates for linesmen, have been ad-vian- 1 •cod: from' 2s 2d to 2s 2-ld an hour and for linesmen’s assistants from Is Tl-kl ' to ,2s. The term of the award l is- two years from- January 5, d'&Bd, to corresponding date in- 1933. The special circumstances under which Ithig decision has been made are explained Iby ,Mr Justice Frazer, president of the count, in a memorandum ( attached! to the award. A dissenting' opinion has been recorded by the employers' representative, Mr Cecil Prime. > The memorandum of the president [staked, inter alia: ‘‘A majority of the. ■court considered itseilf bound* by its decision in the Dunedin city corporation linesmen's and 1 linesmen’s assist-1 ants’ award! made in l 1929, to increase | the rates for linesmen and linesmen’s mslsistanit-'s. The court, aflter having fixed the standard must apply that standard until it decides to alter it. Mr Prime dissents on this point and his dissenting opinion- is appended.’’ Mr Prime’s dissent- contained- the- following Comment: ‘‘The adoption of the higher rate means imposing added cost on '.in essential- service. Such procedure at the -present time is unjustt,, particularly in country areas where the .producers are in urgent need of moans to reduce their costs. The court should 'take into 'consideration, more fully the economic -condition of the country and act in .accordance- with ithe exigencies of the- moment rather thorn be guided by iwhat may have been done by a small minority of employers more than a year ago when the general conditions were vastly different from- those which are ruling to-day.”