REDUCTION OF WAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20987, 25 September 1931, Page 11

REDUCTION OF WAGES.

EXEMPTION APPLICATIONS. MORE REFUSALS BY COURT. SPECIAL GROUNDS NOT SHOWN. Several more applications by unions to the Arbitration Court for exemption from the general order of the Court reducing wages by 10 per cent, have been refused. In giving judgment in the case of the printers, machinists, lithographers and bookbinders and of the typographers, the president of the Court, Mr. Justice Frazer, said special stress was laid by the union on tiie fact that machine operators in the typographical trade had had their piece-work rates considerably reduced by the last award. It was suggested that the effect of the alteration was greater than was intended by the Court. That, however, was a matter that could be considered when an application for a new award was being dealt with. The Court must take the existing award as it stood. The rates for junior female assistants in the related trades were also stressed. It was argued that these assistants should be regarded as being in a similar position to that of female assistants in the boot manufacturing trade, who had been excluded from the operation of the general order. The boot-trade assistants were, however, properly considered as apprentices in all respects, except that they were not bound for a term. The junior assistants in the related trades were paid rela- j tively higher wages, arid were in no sense i comparable to apprentices. In so far as the grounds of the applica- j tions were of a general nature, the in for- j mation supplied to the Court was that, while unemployment and rationing of work were not evident to any extent, business had fallen off considerably, and profits had declined. The position of country offices wa3 apparently worse than that of city offices. In reference to the painters, decorators and leadlight workers' appeal, the Court stated the trade was admittedly casual, j but the Court had already held that i casualnesa of employment was not a , j special ground. It was one of the general { | features of the present depression, and j was found to a greater or less degree in j nearly ail trades. The economic conditions affecting the trade, so far as the Court could see, were not materially different from those affecting the building trades generally. In declining applications from northern district and Taranaki builders, contractors and general labourers, and from the New Plymouth Borough Council labourers, the Court said the grounds relied on, in so far jas they related to unemployment and I casualness of work, were general in their j nature and not special to tha workers i affected. In so far as the grounds relied on | related to the cost of living, the position j of these workers was not different from | that of other workers. The building j trade was obviously slack, and it could, j not be suggested that the economic conj dition of that industry was such as to j I warrant special treatment being accorded I to workers employed in it.