COOKS AND STEWARDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20827, 20 March 1931, Page 10

COOKS AND STEWARDS.

INCREASE IN PAY SOUGHT.

EVIDENCE AS TO HIGH WAGES.

[BY TELEteRAPH.—PTIESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, Thursdny.

The Arbitration Court is hearing a dispute affecting cooks and stewards in the employ of coastal shipping companies. The union asks for an increaso in pay of about 15 per cent., and the companies ask for a reduction of about the same amount.

Mr. Bishop, representing the employers, said wages since 1914 had been increased by about 60 per cent., but the actual earnings were nearly 150 per cent, more, because of alterations in the conditions of work.

"We find assistant stewards drawing from £204, to—in one extreme case—£4oo a year plus their keep," said Mr. Bishop. "Stewards and cooks draw from £275 to £334, £375, £368, £415, and £531 per annum plus keep. Is it any wonder, in face of thesfe figures, that thero is an outcry against the cost of transport in this and other sheltered industries in New Zealand 1"

Where, asked Mr. Bishop, was their senso of proportion ? It was time they faced the facts fairly and honestly. The disparity between the earnings of those workers who were producing for export and those in the sheltered industries must bo removed. Here was, perhaps, the most glaring example of that disparity to be found in the whole Dominion. He confidently asked the Court to correct it.