LABOURERS' PAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22860, 15 October 1937, Page 16

LABOURERS' PAY

COUNTRY BOROUGHS ALTERNATIVE WAGE RATES MEMORANDUM BY COURT An award covering the conditions of employment of general and other labourers in the employ of country borough councils in the Auckland Province was issued yesterday by the Arbitratioii Court. In an attached memorandum, the president. Mr. Justice O'Regan, says that the principal matters referred to the Court related to wages and annual holiday. "These the Court has settled," ho says, "mainly on the lines agreed to by the parties in similar disputes in other districts. Wages for these workers in the past have been fixed on an hourly basis, but in conformity with the suggestion made in the general pronouncement of September 7, 1937, the Court has incorporated in this award provisions for weekly wages for all workers, but has made these alternative or permissive.

Court's Recommendation "The Court recommends the adoption of this principle wherever practicable, but the rates fixed in this case must not be taken as its final determination as to the ratio between hourly and weekly rates." The award, which is for a period of ouo year from October 14, provides for a normal working week of 40 hours, worked eight hours daily from Monday to Friday. A measure of elasticity is allowed for in the case of essential work.

The alternative wage Bcale allows 2s 4d an hour or £4 8s 4d a week for quarrymen, pipe-layers, casual labourers and yardmen; 2s 5d or £4 lis 8d for men working in shafts or trenches six feet deep or in tunnels; 2s 5Jd or £4 13s 4d a week for sanitary drain layers; and 2s 6d or £4 15s a week for rockdrill men, shot-firers and tool sharpeners. Holiday Provision Workers employed by the week are to be entitled to one week's holiday •on full pay for each completed year of service. When required to commence work over two miles distant from a central point to be mutually agreed upon, workers are to travel to and from such work, or to be conveyed to and from the work by the employer, at the employer's expense. Six hours is to constitute a day's work in wet places or places where the air is foul. Modern first-aid emergency kits are to be kept by the employer at convenient places. The following are the borough councils that have been made parties to the award:—Cambridge, Dargaville, Hamilton, Morrinsville, Opotiki, Paeroa, Pukekohe, Rotorua, Taumarunui, Tauranga, Te Aroha, Te Kuiti, Thames, Whakatane, Whangarei and Waihi.