ARBITRATION COURT.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 237, 19 September 1922, Page 5

ARBITRATION COURT.

WATERSIDE WORKERS. CASE. FOR BETTER CONDITIONS OF EM. PLOYMKNT. Wellington, Sept. 19. In the waterside labour dispute, Mr. J. Roberts to-day continued the entation of the Waterside Federation case to the Arbitration Court. He submitted figures showing the relation which the cost of labour bore to the value of some of the commodities hand, led. In regard to butter the watersider was paid .02 of a penny per lb. for his labour, or onefiftieth of a penny per pound Labour received 2/4 id per ton for handling coal. \ Mr. Roberts also gave the cost of handling meat, cheese, etc., and maintained that the cost of handling commodities on the waterfront was infinitesimal compare# with the value of the commodities handled. He admitted that the watersiders did not come before the court from dhoice. They believed in adjusting disputes hy negotiation. He maintained that the intention of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act was that every effort should tie made to adjust disputes before referring them to the Court. Since 1916 there had been 2339 acci- ' dents on the waterfront. Out of that number sixteen had lieen fatal. Two hundred aiwl fortythree nwulents had necessitated men lieing off work from three to twelve months. There had been five fatal accidents during the past year, all of which could be attributed to faulty gear or plant.