Labourers Seek Wages Other Than On Hourly Basis

Northern Advocate, 14 November 1941, Page 6

Labourers Seek Wages Other Than On Hourly Basis

[Per Press Association.—Copyright] WELLINGTON. This Day. The hearing of an application by the New Zealand Builders, Contractors and General Labourers’ Union for a new Dominion award was resumed in the Arbitration court today. The secretary of the union (Mr. P. Butler) continuing the case for the workers, asked the court to award some tangible minimum guaranteed wage, other than on an hourly basis. The union asked for either daily engagement, a guaranteed number of working hours, or guaranteed wages each week. On 2/4 an hour, plus 5 per cent, the union’s workers averaged only about £3/11/- a week, which was below the court’s basic wage of 1930, Mr. Butler said, and they asked for relief. Daniel Jeremiah Keane, organiser for the Wellington branch of the Labourers' Union, said he estimated that builders’ labourers lost on an average a day a week through wet weather. There were few inside jobs for labourers in the building trade. Witness produced a number of returns he had made of the time workers had lost on building jobs in- Wellington and the Hutt Valley because of wet weather. He said he had worked with men on building jobs when they were drenched to the skin. The tendency was to keep working as long as possible in the rain. Mr. Justice Tindill: My experience has been the opposite. Cross-examined by Mr. W. J. Mountjoy, representing the employei’s, witness said that builders’ labourers came and went frequently on jobs. Few builders’ labourers were employed regularly, wet or fine. The hearing will be continued tomorrow.