ARBITRATION COURT.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 89, 28 March 1912, Page 6

ARBITRATION COURT.

The sitting of the Arbitration Court was concluded in Napier today. Mr. Justice Sim presided, and associated with him were Messrs. J. Scott and W. McCullogh (representatives of the employers’ and employees’ respectively. BAKERS’ DISPUTE. Mr. A. H. Cooper ,who appeared with Mr. A. Collins for the union, said that the dispute was very similar to the one in Wellington and elsewhere. There was no dispute with regard to hours and the rate of payment for overtime had been fixed. The only matters in dispute were the rate of wages for casual hands, the time of starting work, and the holiday clause. Mr. Wright, who appeared for the employers, said that they would agree to the preference clause as obtaining in Wellington. He said that the masters preferred to keep to the old awards. The hours agreed upon were those now being worked in Hawke’s Bay. Both the employers and employees had stated that they had no fault to find with the conditions. With regard to the holiday question, he stated that Labour Day was becoming a universal holiday. He then dealt with the other holidays during the year. Concerning wages Mr. Wright said they had now about reached high water, the only difficulty was to equalise them according to skill neded for the various trades. The Court had been inclined to fix a minimum wage. This had a great bearing on the wages paid to apprentices. He then called A. E. Tucker, who gave evidence concerning the condition of trade in this district. PASTRYCOOKS’ AWARD.

Mr. Wright stated that the old award could not be improved upon. They had no alterations to suggest.