CONCILIATION COUNCIL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 199, 23 July 1937, Page 2

CONCILIATION COUNCIL

DRIVERS’ DISPUTE. SHOULD GO TO COURT. Per Press Association. AVELLTNGTON, July 22. The hearing before the Wellington Conciliation Commissioner (Mr M. J. Reardon) of the dispute between the New Zealand Federated Drivers’ and Related Tracies Industrial Association of Workers and the Auckland Bus Company and' others made little progress toward a settlement to-day. The drivers’ assessors were: Messrs R. C. Stakhouse (Dunedin), R. P. Smith (Hamilton), F. A. Cooper and E.. H. Jarvis (Auckland), G. Shamy (Christchurch), F. J. Reed and A. Psrlane (Wellington). Messrs H. W. Haywood (Christchurch), J. H. Knight and C. L. Bishop (Wellington), N. li. Spencer and W. 11. Taylor (Auckland), G. S. Kinsby (Dunedin) and A. P. Smith (Rotorua) represented the employers. Mr H. J. Bishop was the employers' agent and Mr F. C. Allerby the drivers’ agent. The employees’ proposals were a 40-hour week to be worked on five consecutive days, the daily hours not to exceed eight and worked within a span of 10 hours with a provision for two days off each week. The minimum wage asked for was £6 a week with an increase of 10s where fares had to he collected.

In the second part of the dispute covering service car drivers the employees 1 claims were the same for drivers of cars licensed to carry up to nine passengers, but they claimed a wage for more than nine passengers of £6 10s. The employers’ proposals provided for an 88-hour fortnight as long as the maximum hours in any one week did not exceed 48. They offered the same award rate of wages operating at present. The employers maintained that though it was possible for them to work a 40-hour week it was resulting in a great deal of inconvenience and causing costs to rise considerably. The increase in the strain on drivers because of the increased size of buses was put forward by the employees as a reason for increased wages. The Commissioner said apparently no settlement was to be reached in the Council. He advised the employers to leave the matter to the Court when they would be given an opportunity to show that a 40-hour week was not workable in their case.