CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 251, 22 October 1915, Page 4

CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

CLAIMS. IN BUILDING TRADES

A sitting of the Conciliation Council was held at Blenheim yesterday to consider the Marlborough building trades dispute. Mr P. Halley, the Conciliation Commissioner, presided over the following assemblage of assessors:—Employers: Messrs J. Wemyss, J. L. Higgs, and W. Can-. Workers: Messrs R. Hodson, J. Higgins, and John Hay. ~ Tho increases, of wages asked for were as follows:—Carpenters, from Is 4^d an hour (present rate), to Is 6d: plumbers, Is 4£d to Is 6d; painters, 3 s 3d to Is 6d; bricklayers, Is 7d to Is- 7£d. - . Tho Commissioner explained to. the Council« that any agreement arrived at could only be regarded as a recommendation, and would not operate until the Court of Arbitration had made an award, and that it was comi»etent for any person to object to the recommendation if they thought it advisable to do so. The Court would give consideration to any such objections. The employers intimated that they couH not depart from their counterclaims.

The Commissioner said that the rates asked for by the workers were, with the exception of the painters, on a par with the rates awarded by the Court through the Dominion, and that Blenheim would not be treated diflfeiently from any other place. There was a possibility, if the whole matter was referred to the Court, that clauses would be introduced into the award that might prove obnoxious to both parties. It would lie to the mutual advantogo of both employers and workers to arrange their difficulties without reference to the Court.

in answer to a qupption, it was statoti that the Court woTild not sit in Blenheim for .it. least two months, and that the recommendations would have to bo doa.lt with Ijy tho Court boforo being mado an awai'd.

It \\xis agreed to adjourn the business for a month, and that the Commissioner .should again eonvo-no the parties and make another attempt to adjust the di.sputo.