WORK AND WAGES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16493, 7 March 1914, Page 12

WORK AND WAGES.

AUCKLAND WATERSIDE > • « WORKERS. : n\g [Per Press Association.] \ . AUCKLAND, March 0. ] , Mr Glover, M.P., introduced to thft Mayor ten waterside workers who stafe* j ed that there were 400 or 500 of the«V! men out of employment owing to iar ability to get into the Union. Thef asked that the City Council should. ett» - deavour to provide them with labour* ing work. i, The Mayor promised to confer witl the Minister of Labour on the subject ARBITRATION COURT. THE PLUMBERS’ DISPUTES. , [Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, March fl. \ The hearing of the plumbers’ pute, in which the men applied for'ft f dominion award, was continued beforft the Arbitration Court to-day. Thf employers called Collins A. Peace, ft master plumber, of Auckland, whft, urged that it was imperative 'that 1 plumbers should be classified. At. present there were two distinct classa* of workers in Auckland and two dift tinct minimum wages. 1 Alexander Burt, junior, a member oj the firm of A. and T. Burt, said that, of the firm’s fifteen plumbers in Auctor; land eleven received above the mini*' mum wage, and two were considerablyin excess of it. The firm never rea garded the minimum wage as ths maximum. Those receiving more thaft the minimum wage in Auckland were between 50 and 60 per cent of the plumbers in Auckland. None of tha firm’s hands in Auckland lost time through slackness. In Dunedin thef, had men with twenty-eight years’ con* tinuous service. In Wellington thft firm paid two men more than the mini* mum. All his hoys attended the Technical College in Auckland. H*i opposed the leading-hand clause de* manded, as the majority of the master* of New Zealand were working master* and supervised their own jobs. Ha much preferred the colonial to the Eng-, lish plumber. Colonials were better all-round men.