TO PAY OVERTIME

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 53, Issue 32459, 26 July 1944, Page 8

TO PAY OVERTIME

PIAKO COUNTY DECISION WORK SATURDAY MORNING UNTIL BASIC WAGE INCREASED / According to a decision made at a meeting of the finance committee and endorsed by the council at its July meeting, the Piako County Council is to allow its outside statT to work four hours on Saturday at overtime rates of pay until such time as the basic wage for certain employees is increased. The scheme will have the twofold effect of speeding up certain work and allowing employees in receipt of less than the basic wage to supplement their incomes. . In recording his vote against the motion, Cr. W. A. Rushton said' that the principle was wrong and not in conformity with an earlier policy pursued by the council. The wax’ was not yet won and' the need for an all-

out effort as urgent as ever. The 40hour week was generally accepted as a principal factor in causing high prices, and he recalled a resolution passed by the council in 1940- favouring a 50-hour working week at ordinary rates- of pay. He considered that application should 1 be. made to the Stabilisation Commission to have the wages -of certain workers in the employ of the council brought up to a basic wage of £5 ss, and felt that the ratepayers in his riding would not faVour the scheme adopted by the council. -He quote dthe case of a soldier recently returned from the Pacific who was about to take up a position on a sheep farm looking after 1000 ewes for £4 7s 6d per week plus a cottage. '‘There will be no 40-hour week or overtime for that man,” Cr. Rushton said, “and the work of such men will have to provide the money to pay council workmen overtime rates.”