PIECEWORK CLAUSE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 75, 25 February 1938, Page 3

PIECEWORK CLAUSE.

DISPUTE IN CONCILIATION. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Feb. 24. Strong opposition to the retention of a piecework clause in an award was expressed on behalf of the workers at a hearing of the Wellington, Canterbury and Westland coach workers’ dispute in the Conciliation Council today. Despite assurances that employers did not seek any unfair advantage from the clause there was no agreement on the question which was referred to the Court for argument together with other poiiits in the dispute. . ' \ The piecework clause objected to reads: “Piecework may be worked in any branches of the trade provided that the rates so fixed shall be such as will secure a competent worker at least 10 per cent more than the minimum or ordinary rate prescribed by this award as the case may be.” A statement by the employers’ assessor that the Government favoured piecework was emphatically denied by Mr Glover, for the union. He said that it was the very [joint on which the Waihi strike was fought,, and some of the present Crown Ministers took a .prominent part in it. Public works were not conducted on piecework, but on-a co-operative contract system. He claimed that the piecework system set an unfair general standard. Tile question of wages and hours will be discussed this afternoon.