Whangarei Milk Roundsmen Want New Award

Northern Advocate, 2 December 1939, Page 11

Whangarei Milk Roundsmen Want New Award

! \Special to “Northern Advocate'’] ■ AUCKLAND. This Day. ; An award for roundsmen in Whan- ! garei and Haim lion, applied for by the ! Auckland Milk Roundsmen’s Union, | was herd by the Arbitration Court : yesterday. I It was explained that the present j award applied to a 20-mile radius ; from the Auckland Chief Post Office, i and there were no provisons for i roundsmen outside that area, i Mr J. Furtell, who appeared for the I union, suggested that this should form | the basis of a country award to which ! ether parlies could be added as the ; opportunity arose. Union’s Demand. The union claimed an 88-hour fortnight, 80 to be worked on ten days of the fortnight, at £5 a week, and the remaining eight hours, if worked, to be paid at 3/9 an hour. It_ sought two weeks’ annual holiday, a starling time not earlier than 2.30 a.m.. provision of a quart of milk a day free to roundsmen, and overtime at time and a-half for the first three hours, and double time thereafter.

These conditions apply in the Auckland award. Decision Reserved. The employers stated that conditions were very different in Auckland from those in provincial towns, and counterclaimed for a weekly wage of £4, an 88-hour fortnight, one week’s annual holiday, and overtime at time and a-halx.

A wage scale was proposed for youths between 1(5 and 21 years, employed as roundsmen’s assistants, whereas the union opposed the employment of juvenile labour. Decision was reserved.