WORK OF PLUMBERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15551, 7 March 1914, Page 8

WORK OF PLUMBERS.

CLASSIFICATION WANTED. VALUE OF TRAINING. [BY TELEGRAPH. PRESS ASSOCIATION.] i Wellington, Friday. The hearing of the plumbers' dispute, in which the men applied for a Dominion award, was continued in the Arbitration Court to-day. Called on behalf of the employers, Collin A. Peace, master plumber, of Auckland, urged that it was imperative for plumbers to be classified, because they were classified under t.he Plumbers' Registration Act, and at present there were two distinct classes of workers in Auckland, at two distinct minimum wages. Alexander Burt, jun. (a member of the firm of A. and T. Burt), said the firm employed 15 plumbers in Auckland, 11 of whom had received more tlian the minimum wage, and two considerably in excess for some considerable time. His firm never regarded the minimum wage as the maximum, and he advanced that us a. reason why the minimum should not be too high. If the Court granted Is 6d all round as demanded, he did not think he could raise wages proportionately to those receiving more than the minimum. Between 50 and 60 per cent, of plumbers in Auckland received more than the minimum wage. None of his firm's hands in Auckland lost time through slackness.' In Dunedin they had men for 28 years continuously in their service. In Wellington the firm paid two men more than the minimum wage. All his boys attended tho Technical College in Auckland He opposed the leading hand clause demanded, as a majority of the masters in New Zealand were working masters, and supervised their own jobs. He much preferred ! a colonial plumber to an English one, the colonials being better all-round men.