TYPOGRAPHICAL DISPUTE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18412, 19 May 1920, Page 7

TYPOGRAPHICAL DISPUTE.

[Per Press Association.} WELLINGTON, May 18. Tho Conciliation Council was occvtpi<sd to-clav hearing the New Zealand Typographical Federation's dispute Tho Commissioner remarked at the outset that though the dispute was originally filed as a Dunedin one. it was now heing proceeded with as a local dispute. On behalf of the employees, Mr Chapman said that it was hoped that any settlement arrived at would become a settlement for the whole Dominion. The parties in Wellington had met on four occasions during the last three mouths, and an agreement was arrived at in tho matter of wages for hand compositors. Tho on.lv difference of opinion still existing i" regard to the terms of tho award was on the question of the cost of living bonivs. The men had demanded £6 per week, exclusive .if bonus, and had been granted £5. Thov now proposed to go to the Arbitration Court for the Gs bonus it had recently awarded. In opening tho case for tho employers, Mr Pirani said ho regretted that an act of grace on tho part of the emplovers had been construed by tho employees into capitulation, when such a thing was never intended. The employers' could not look at the demand for £•" "Ins a cost of living bonus of Bs, Every employer in the trade in New Zealand had repudiated everything above £5, inclusive of bonus. The limit tho employers were prepared to concede was an additional Is 3d, bringing iV total minimum wage to £5 Is Bd\ the same figures as conceded to machinists.

deliberation continued oil day long without an agreement, the hearing being adjourned till Mav 25.