WORK AND WAGES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15257, 18 March 1910, Page 8

WORK AND WAGES.

ENGINE-DRIVERS AND FIREMEN. United Press Association —By EUctrio Telegraph—Copyright. MELBOURNE, March 17. The Federal Arbitration Court has commenced the hearing of tho Enginedrivers and Firemen’s Association case. It involves the whole conditions of employment on land engines.

FLAXMILL WORKERS. [Peb Pkess Association.] WELLINGTON, -March 17. The award in the matter of the dispute between the Manawatu flaxmill employees and flaxmillcrs was made today. Tho award provides for a fortyeight hour working week, the employer being entitled to arrange the hours according to the exigencies of his particular business. The usual provisions are made for payment of overtime and holidays. Rates of pay were fixed as follows: —Feeders Is 3d per hour, lioadpaddockers Is lid per hour, benchloaders Is Id per hour, washers Is Id per hour, catchers, assistant paddockers, sorters and shakers Is per hour, rouseabouts 10id per hour, drivers £2 2s per week, stripperkeeper to receive not less than 2s Gel per day in addition to the wages paid to him in his principal capacity. The minimum rate for piecework paddocking is to be 23s 6d per ton from April l to September 30, and 20s per ton from October 1 to March 31, and, when carting is done, 5s per ton in addition to the foregoing rates. Tho minimum rate of pay for scutching is to be £1 6s per ton. The rate for cutting flax is to be settled as before by agreement between the employer and employee, also the wagps of cooks and their assistants. Labour not otherwise specified shall be paid for at the rate of Is per hour. Wages of youths shall be, from 16 to 17 years 15s a week, 17 to 18 £1 per week, 18 to 19 £1 os per week, 19 to 20 £1 10s per week and 20 to 21 £1 15s per week. Where food is provided by employers, it shall be of good quality and sufficient in quantity, and sorters shall not be charged more than 15s per week .for board. Special precautionary measures against smoking in the swamp and in the proximity of dry fibre are to be taken, also conditions are laid down governing the employment of under-rate workmen. Such workers shall have their wages fixed by the Stipendiary Magistrate of the district after due notice to the union. The customary preference clause is inserted in the award. The provisions of the award do not apply to the workers of the Native race at Mr J. G. Rutherford’s AYaverley mill, nor the mill of Mr J. Burke at Wairoa. In the event of new machinery being introduced into any flaxmill and a new process of manufacture being adopted, which alters the nature or amount of work necessary in connection with any operation in the manufacture of hemp, the rates of pay for such work shall bo arranged by (mutual agreement between tlie Employers’ Association and the Union. Failing such agreement, the .matter shall be referred to the Court for settlement. The award becomes operative on April 1 next, and remains in force to March 31, 1913. HOTEL EMPLOYEES’ AWARD. The Canterbury Licensed Victuallers’ •Association and the Canterbury Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ Union have entered into an industrial agreement for the substitution oi the following clauses for Clauses 8 and 9 of the award:— ! “ Employers shall employ members of the Union in preference to non-mem-bers, provided they are competent to perform, the work required to be done. “ The production of references from the worker’s last employer, or the last two employers, should the worker havo been employed by more than one employer, certifying tho worker to be competent, sober and honest, shall be considered sufficient proof of competency, i “ Any employer who shall hereafter engage a worker who is not a member of the Union, and who, within one caleudar month after having been engaged, fails to become and remain a member of the Union, shall dismiss such worker if called upon to do so by the Union, provided that in such case, the Union shall provide a worker competent and ready and willing to perform the work required to be done. In considering the qualifications of a member offered to replace the non-member, the employer, when the worker is a waiter or waitress, shall be entitled to take into account such matters as the parBonal appearance and manners of the two worlcrs, and generally their respective suitability for the work required to be done.” Provision is also made that the Union shall establish and maintain an employment bureau within one mile of the Christchurch Post Office, and connected with the Telephone Exchange, that an unemployment. book shall be kept, and that tho secretary of the Union shall, free of chargo, inform employers seeking workers of the names of choso available. The fortnightly meeting of the Christchurch Operative Plasterers’ Union was held on Wednesday evening at the Trades ITnll. Correspondence was read from the New Zealand Trades and Labour Council executive dealing ■with the proposed New Zealand Federation of Labour. It was decided to hear Mr D. M’Laren, M.P., on Tuesday evening, before taking action in the matter. It was also decided to vote another £5 5s to the wives and children of the Newcastle minors, making a total of £lO 10s voted towards the strike fund. Consideration of the proposal to federate all Plasterers’ Unions throughout the dominion was hold over till the April meeting. '