ARBITRATION COURT AWARDS.

Matamata Record, Volume XIV, Issue 1193, 5 February 1931, Page 1

ARBITRATION COURT AWARDS.

POWER BOARDS AFFECTED. Recent Decision Condemned.

Comment on the recent action of the Arbitration Court in granting an increase of a halfpenny an hour to electrical linesmen was made at the February meeting of the Thames Valley Electric Power Board. The board decided to support the protest voiced at a meeting of the South Auckland Power Boards’ Association. In a circular letter the • secretary of the Auckland Provincial Employers’ Association stated:— “ It was very disappointing to note that , the Arbitration Court has seen fit to award increases in wages to linesmen and their assistants against the weight of evidence. I have no doubt that the boards and other employers bound by the award will enter an emphatic protest against the Court’s action at a time like the present, when the whole Dominion is suffering under a depression, and wages and salaries not covered by Arbitration Court awards are in many cases being reduced or are under review. It was clearly shown in Court that any increase in wages must of necessity result in a lessening of the number of hands employed.” The chairman (Mr. F. M. Strange) reported that at a recent meeting of the South Auckland Power Boards’ Association at Hamilton a resolution disapproving of the increase in wages as contained in the award was carried with one disssentient. The meeting had not recommended a reduction in salaries of power board staffs. The feeling was that any reduction in wages and salaries should be general. He moved that the board' endorse the resolutions carried at the Hamilton meeting. Mr. J. Pohlen seconded this.

Mr. W. R. Lowry : I think the resolution is in the right direction, but I do not think we have gone far enough when we ask the Government to make a reduction all round. We have our own house to put in order, and I think the time has come when every public body should do so. I am not going to condemn the Government as long as we do not attempt to meet the present economic position.

Mr. J. Price said what concerned him was the attitude of the Arbitration Court in increasing the wages of linesmen, while at the same time it reduced the wages of flaxmill workers to meet the present conditions.