PLUMBERS' DISPUTE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9743, 7 March 1914, Page 2

PLUMBERS' DISPUTE.

(Per Press association.') WKLLJXOTON. March 6. I lie 'uearing of the plunders' dispute, in which the men applied for a Dominion award, was continued in the Arbi-

tral on Court. On behalf of the employers Mr Coliins urged that it was imperative that plumbers be classified because they were classified under the Plumbers' Registration Aco. and at present there wen 1 two distinct classes of workers in Auckland at two distinct minimum wages. Alexander Hurt. junr.. a member of the foin oi A. and j\ Burt, Ltd., said joi th" firms fifteen plumbers in Auckland eleven received above the minimum wage, two of them, considerably in excess, tor some considerable time. His firm never regarded the minimum wage the maximum and he advanced that as a roa-on why the minimum lie not too h:gii. Ii the Court granted Is 6d all round as demanded lie ditl not think be coirld raise the wages proportionately oi tbo.se receiving more than the mini-' mum. Between o() and fit) per cent, of the plumbers in Auckland received more than tli" minimum. None of the firm's ham!.- in Auckland lost time through slackness. In Dunedin they had men of years' continuous service. In Wei- 1 bug ton the firm paid iwo men more than the minimum. All his boys attended the Technical College in Auck-' land. He opposed the leading hand clause demanded as the majority of the masters <>f New Zealand were working masters and supervised their own jobs, lie much preferred the colonial plumber to the English. Colonials were better all-round men. J