BUILDING TRADES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17336, 6 December 1919, Page 13

BUILDING TRADES.

"ONE BIG AWARD" SOUGHT. ACTION BY EMPLOYEES. CLAIMS FILED IN COURT. The/proposal to secure "one big award," to cover the various sections of the building trade, was advanced yesterday by the filing of claims in -the Arbitration Court, on behalf of the unions interested. This action was taken as the result of an understanding reached at a conference of employers and employees in last October, under the presidency of the conciliation commissioner, Mr. T. Harle Giles. The movement originated with the Building Trades' Federation, and with the approval of that body the claims were formally filed by the Auckland branch of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners. The principal features of the claims are: Eight hours a day on five working days of the week; two classes of labour, journeymen, and apprentices; minimum wage for journeymen, £4 15s a week, casuals 2s 6d an hour; double pay for overtime, and for any time in excess of four hours without a meal intervening; apprentices' wages to advance from onesixth of journeymen's wages to five-sixths in the fifth year, and full journeymen's pay in the sixth year of plumbers' apprenticeships; piecework to bo prohibited. Special clauses affecting conditions in individual sections are included, and it is proposed that the term of the award should be one year. The attendance of apprentices at Technical Schools on two half-days weekly, compulsory upon employers and apprentices alike, is provided for. The following employers' organisations in Auckland have been cited:—Builders and Contractors, Sawmillers and Woodware Manufacturers, Furniture and Furnishing, Guild of Master Painters, Master Plumbers. In addition, there are over 1000 individual employers arranged under the following headings:-General "electricians, furniture trades, plumbers, painters, plasterers, and stonemasons. The employees' organisations cited are : Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (Eden, Onehunga, Otahuhu, Hamilton, Whangarei, ' and Gisborne branches), Auckland Bricklayers. ' Auckland Electrical Workers, Auckland United Furniture Trades. Auckland Painters, Auckland Operative Plasterers. It is stated to be possible that the Labourers' Union, which was not represented at the conference, will join in the movement. The claims will probably come before a conciliation council on December 25.