GROCERS’ ASSISTANTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11884, 6 May 1899, Page 8

GROCERS’ ASSISTANTS.

, TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The reason why no effort has been made until now to bring wages in the grocery trade into line with other trades lies in the fact that the slightest murmur of discontent on the part of an assistant meant instant notice to quit. A grocer_ is not hound by contract or penalty, as is the case in most trades; a hand less only means that those remaining come back at night to overbade the work. There is no overtime to pay, and it costs the employer nothing. And tire same fate awaits whosoever refuses. As for carter’s work, there is no limit. To-night, I saw two carts delivering goods three miles from town, after seven o’clock. Here w© have a body of men whose duty it is, for 54 hours a week, to serve the public (a very arduous task). They must be smart; they must look smart, be intelligent, and be fair scholars. To suit oneself to the humour of every separate customer while serving them means a physical and mental strain of which the public have little idea, and for such wages as any ordinary tradesman would scornfully refuse. At the Board 1 of Conciliation two instances of good wages being paid were cited. It is well known that in both cases the recipients are men who were the victims of the evil which lies at the root of the whole trouble; that is, the inordinate cutting of prices. Let the profits in this trade be but half what they are in other businesses and very soon will disappear that dyspeptic and) hypercritical expression which is the characteristic of the master grocers of this city. They will then have heart to comply with the very modest demands of the Union. As an immediate result of this dispute, men have been brought together on friendly terms who hitherto have only known each other through the medium of their several price-lists.---! am, etc., PLADS.