ARBITRATION COURT IS UNDER FIRE

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7412, 20 December 1930, Page 7

ARBITRATION COURT IS UNDER FIRE

For Increasing Wages

Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Dee. IS,

The action of tho Arbitration Court in increasing the wages of electriceal linesmen was considered at a meeting of the advisory board of tho Auckland Provincial Employers’ Association. It was resolved: “That this association enters an emphatic protest against the action of the Court in awarding increases in wages to linesmen and their assistants against tho weight of evidence at a time like the present, when the whole Dominion is suffering under a serious depression, and wages and salaries not covered by tho Arbitration Court award arc in many eases either being reduced or arc uuder review. It was clearly shown in Court that any increase in wages must of necessity result in lessening the number of hands employed.

“The memorandum of the award and Air. Prime’s dissent should be carefully noted, as they show very clearly that in making the award the Court merely followed a precedent it had created in the south in 1929, without taking into consideration tho fact that economic conditions have seriously changed in the meantime.”

It was also resolved: “That the advisory board of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation be requested to give consideration to this matter, and voice a protest on behalf of the employers of the Dominion.”

PAHIATUA COUNTY ASKS FOE ABOLITION.

PAHIATUA, Dee. 19,

A. resolution was passed at a meeting of tho Pahiatua County Council to-day to the effect that tho time had arrived for tho Government- to reduce all salaries and wages in all departments; also that the Arbitration Court lie abolished.