BOOT FACTORY WAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17327, 26 November 1919, Page 8

BOOT FACTORY WAGES.

REQUEST FOR INCREASE. COURT RESERVES DECISION. [BT TELEGRAPH.PRESS ASSOCIATION-.] WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The Arbitration Court reserved its decision in the application of the New Zealand Boot Trades Association for an increase in w,ages under the War Legislation and the Statute Law Amendment Act, 1918, aad for shorter hours for male operators. The association asked that the minimum wage should be not less than 1 6 7J,d per hour, and 2£d bonus, that the regular hours of work should be between 7.30 a.m. and- 5 p.m. on five days of the week and 7.30 a.m. and 12 noon on the recognised factory half-holiday, and that the ordinary working week should consist of 44 hoars, any time worked beyond these hours to be paid for at the rate of time and a-half.

For female operators the Court was asked that the hours.of work should be the same as for males, and that the minimum rates should be: Females working at the boot and shoe industry, and having served five years and upwards, £2 2s 6d a week, computed by the hour; hot-wax thread machinists £2 10s a week' and if not worked continuously for that period, to be paid per hour at the same rate.

The grounds of the application were the increase in the cost of living as declared by the Government statistician's figures, and the unhealthiness of the trade.