PLUMBERS DISPUTE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 6 March 1914, Page 6

PLUMBERS DISPUTE

FURTHER EYTDENCE

t LrfiTED Pres3 Association

WELLINGTON. This Day

The hearing of the plumbers'-dispute, in which the men applied for a Domunon award, was continued in the Arbitration Court to-day. . Called' on' behalf; of the - employers, Collins A. Peace, master plumber, <f Auckland, urged that it was imperative that plumbers be classified, becausethey were classified under the Plumbers Le.nstration Act, and at present there were Two distinct, classes of workers in Auckland, at two distinct minimum wages. Mexander Burt junior, a member ot he'firm of A. and T. Burt, said that ot his firm's fifteen Dlumbers in Auckland, el-yen received above the minimum wage and two considerably in excess. lhe firm uever regarded the minimum wage as the maximum, and advanced- that as a reason why the minimum be not too h-h. If the Court granted Is 6d * H round, and it wm demanded, he did not think he could raise wages proportioiiaielv of those receiving more than tne minimum. Between 50 and 69 per cent of plumbers in Auckland received moie than the minimum. None of the fiims hands in Auckland lost time through : slackness. In Dunedin they hading 28 vears' continuous service, m \\•elling- | ton't-he firm paid two men more than the minimum. AH his_ boys atten thp Technical College at Auckland He op- ■ po £ l the leading hand clause demanded, L the majority of masters 111 New Zealand were working masters and sivpeiI viid their owr. jobs. He much P™'™** ' the colonial plumber to the English ! plumber. The colonials were betier all 1 round men.