PAYMENT OF SHEARERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17293, 17 October 1919, Page 9

PAYMENT OF SHEARERS.

NORTHERN AWARD MADE. SOUTHERN AGREEMENT ADOPTED. The dispute between the sheepowners and the shearers and shed-hands reached the final stage yesterday, when the Arbitration Court agreed to make an award governing the industry for the principal industrial districts of the Dominion, the district* for which no awards have been made being Taranaki, Nelson, and Westland. The Poverty Bay and East Coast disi ! pitte was considered by a Conciliation , , Council presided over by the commissioner, , ! Mr. T. Harle Giles, yesterday afternoon. , I Mr. F. H. Labatt, secretary to the New ■ j Zealand Sheepowners' Federation, ap- ■ j peared on behalf of the Poverty Bay Sheep- , i owners, and Mr. U. Grayndler, general . secretary to the. New Zealand Workers' ; Union. represented the Poverty Bay , i Shearers and Shedhands' Union. I i A complete agreement was arrived at I • on terms and conditions similar to those ' adopted at the Dominion conference re- ; centlv held in Wellington. , , Subsequently the representatives of the i parties appeared before the Arbitration I Court and asked that the agreement ar- , rived at should be made into an award i for the Poverty Bay and Northern AuckI land district. Mr. Justice Stringer stated • that as both parties were in agreement ; on this matter the Court would extend the j award to the whole of the district. Mr. Orayndler thanked the Court for I meeting the wishes of the workers by facilitating a settlement and making ; awards for every district in which disI putes had been filed. The industry was! i the. largest in the Dominion, and a very ! I satisfactory settlement had been made. ' Mr. Labatt. on behalf of the sheep ! owners, endorsed Mr. Orayndler's remarks '' and said that the sheepowners fully ap--1 I predated the action of the Court in con- ' .-entinp to make the awards for the vari- ' | ous district-; in order that the new rates J and conditions for shearers and shed- . hands should apply to the present season. The agreement fixes the following rates iof pay for shearers : — Hand shearing, machine shearing, and lambshearing, not less than £1 10s ' a hundred, with rations; in cases where 1 the shearers find themselves in rations, . ' thpfe rates shall he increased by 4s a ;. hundred ; the rates for stud sheep shall . I hp settled by agreement between the. e-n-i- ---. plover and the shearer employed to do ! the work : the rate for shearing hogget , rams shall be rate and a-hali, and lor . I ether rams double ordinary rate. For ■ •' .Miedhar.ds the following is the scale: — • i Piessers, by the week £3 10s, by the hour 2? ; ali other shedhands. by the ■ . week £3 ss. by the" hour Is lOd : youths ' j over 16 years of age and Hinder 18 vests, - j by the week £2 10s, by the hoar is 6d. Cooks, or 12 men or under £4 ; cooks' assistants, £5 10s a week. Where over 12 men are employed the wages shall be bj agreement, between the employer and the worker, but not in any cause less than ' a minimum of £4 a week.