PRINTING TRADES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22823, 2 September 1937, Page 13

PRINTING TRADES

CONCILIATION DISCUSSIONS " , H ..1. MAIN QUESTIONS DEFERRED [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Wednesday A decision to arrive at a settlement on the machinery clauses only and then to adjourn to a date to be arranged was reached in the Conciliation Council hearing of the Dominion printing trades' dispute to-day. The commissioner, Mr. M. J. Reardon, had read a telegram from the Arbitration Courl;, indicating that there was no certainty at present as to the date when a pronouncement regarding standard wages would be available. Mr. E. W. Clarkson, agent for the employers, said that if the Court announced weekly rates for skilled, semiskilled and unskilled workers, those rates would necessarily become tho rates for the printing industry. Mr. K. Baxter, agent for the workers, said that the workers thought the minimum wage rate for the industry should bo an hourly rate fixed by the Court and applied on a 40hour week basis. The commissioner said he was wondering whether the council was particularly interested in the Court's pronouncement. It seemed to him that the greater part of the trade was highly skilled and that at the present time the workers were receiving a better wage than they could reasonably expect the Court to award.