INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21285, 12 September 1932, Page 13

INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES

TIMBER AWARD LAPSES POSSIBILITY OF CONFERENCE APPLICATIONS IN OTHER TRADES

The award governing timber yard and sawmill employees in the northern industrial districts, excepting Gisborno, expired on Saturday through the failure to agree upon the proposed new conditions ' n conciliation council, and it will be open from to-day for an individual employer to make a separato arrangement with his workers.

Commenting on the possibility of a conference regarding the workers affected in the city area, Mr. S. E. Wright, secre tary to the Auckland Provincial Employers' Association and the Auckland Sawmillers and Woodware Manufacturers' Association, said that no definite proposal had yet been made, although it was not improbable that a conference would be called.

In the conciliation council, the union opposed the reduction of 40 per cent in wages proposed by the employers on tho ground of tho serious decline in the industry, and no settlement was reached. It was proposed also to increase the number of hours of work. Mr. Wright commented that numbers of disputes were in train, and, in Auckland, conciliation councils would probably bo occupied until tho end of October in considering applications for new awards in possibly moro than 12 industries. In* most instances tho papers had not yet been filed, and tho terms of the suggested new conditions were not known. A d hputo to bo considered before a conciliation council to-day is the application of Auckland employers in the plumbing trade for a new award making provision for lower wages and revised conditions of work. It is suggested that the new rate for registered workers should be Is lOd an hour, and for unregistered plumbers, Is Bd, the existing award providing for an all-round payment of 2s The employers desire a reversion to the former distinction between the two classes of workers.

Overtime is paid at present for work performed before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m. and the employers are now asking that eight hour s should be worked at any time before workers qualify for overtime. The existing rate of overtime payment is

time Hnd a-half for the first four hours, and double time after that period. Under the proposed conditions, the rate would be time and a-quarter for the - first four hours, and time .and a-half following that.

Papers are to be filed within a few days regarding suggested conditions >of employment to replace tho existing award for wool and grain storemen, the principal proposal being reductions .in wages ranging from 25 to 30 per cent. It will be asked that the 44-hour week should be increased to 48. Overtime payments on a reduced scale are also to be sought. A rate of £3 8s 6d a week is sought for permanent workers, who at present receive £4 ss, and a reduction from Is ll£d an hour to Is 7d is sought in the casual rate. It is further desired to reduce payments, to youths by 50 per cent, and to make the age of employment 17 years instead of 18. A dispute affecting tho coachbuilding trade in Auckland is to be heard by a conciliation council on September 26, when the following reductions in wages will be sought by the employers:—Journeymen, 2s o|d an hour to Is 9d; assemblers, Is IOJd to Is 7£d. Revisions of the ; basis of overtime payments are also to bo proposed.