A MATTER OF WAGES

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16358, 30 September 1913, Page 6

A MATTER OF WAGES

Important principles are sometimes involved in the minor business that comes before the City Council without attracting any particular attention. Tho matter of the wages paid to the attendants at the Municipal Baths was mentioned lately, the point raised being that tho men attendants were being paid less than the outdoor workers in the Council's employ were receivingWe aro glad to find that tho Council last night decided to increase the wages of these men to £2 14s a week. But it seems to us that the Council might very well have gone the full length proposed by ono of the councillors. The wages of the bath attendants are now, apparently, uniform with thoso of the outside workers, but tho fact is that in one case the wage is for jt, forty-eight-hour week and in the other for a forty-seven-hour week. Everyone who patronises the baths at all regularly in the busy season knows that the eighthour day of the attendants is only nominal, and that a certain amount of overtime is bound to bo worked. If the extra hour were the ofily consideration it could be made up in some other way—we understand that tho attendants receive special consideration in the matter of holidays—but, strictly speaking, if these men were working under an award the Council would be called upon to pay for a good deal of overtime. In tho circumstances the suggestion that the attendants should be placed on the same footing as outside employees and their wages calculated on the hourly basis was not unreasonable. The matter may appear a small ono, and, indeed, it involves only two attendants and less than £8 a year, but the modesty of the amount makes it all the more deplorable that the Council should have disregarded the importance of the principle.