THEATRE WORKERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22988, 16 March 1938, Page 16

THEATRE WORKERS

DOMINION AWARD CLAIM CONCILIATION PROCEEDINGS AGREEMENT UPON HOURS [DY TELEGRAPH —FRE3S ASSOCIATION J WELLINGTON, Tuesday An application for a Dominion award by the New Zealand Theatrical and Places of Amusement Employees' Union was heard in conciliation council today. Agreement was reached on hours of work, the employers being empowered to fix weekly hours for their respective employees according to the exigencies of the particular theatre.

Hours are not to exceed 36 so far as ticket-takers, doorkeepers, ushers and other theatre attendants (other than caretakers and cleaners) are concerned, and in the case of ticket-sellers, 32 hours a week. Not more than six hours are to be worked in any one day without overtime being paid. No worker is to be called on to work for less than two hours in connection with any one performance. Where theatres are not open each day and night in the week, Monday to Saturday inclusive, the employers may elect to employ workers as performance workers. No agreement was arrived at in the matter of payment for these. It was agreed that overtime should bo at the rate of time and a-half for the first three hours and thereafter double rates, each day to stand by itself. For male theatre attendants in picture theatres a wage of £4 a week was agreed upon, but wages for youths and females were referred to the Arbitration Court. It was agreed that other workers could bo employed as performance workers, but there was no agreement as to payment, and this too was referred to the Court. For workers engaged in vaudeville, concert, operatic, dramatic, boxing and ■wrestling entertainments and any class of performance not elsewhere covered, it was agreed that hours other than for caretakers and cleaners should not exceed the following:—Ticket sellers, two and a-half hours nightly and two hours at matinees; spruikers, three hours a performance; other attendants, from 6.45 p.m. to the clearing of the house and the covering of the seats, provided that 6.45 p.m. should be read as 6.30 p.m. in the case of theatres where the performance commenced earlier than 8 pjn. Provisions relating to the maximum hours of work at each performance and the time from which matinees should be deemed to begin and finish were referred to the Court.