ENTRY BARRED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23092, 18 July 1938, Page 10

ENTRY BARRED

NO BOOM FOR ADULTS ASSESSOR'S CRITICISM MORE USE OF MACHINES "Tho basic ivngc closed the door against people over 20 who may want to take up clerical work; the new award will bolt and lock it," said Mr. C A. Deux berry, one of the employers assessors in the industrial dispute out of which the new Clerical Workers Award arose, when asked yesterday lor his opinion oil the requirement that new entrants of the ages mentioned shall be paid the maximum scale rates of £5 10s and £•'{ 5s a week for male and female workers respectively. Tho various awards now superseded made no provision for the entry of persons over 20, Mr. Deuxberry continued, and it was suggested later in conciliation that they should be engaged at commencing rates equal to tho basic wage of £3 lGs and £1 16s for males and females respectively, which were the statutory minima in any event. However, no agreement was reached.

Hindrance to Education By imposing the maximum scale rates in such cases the Court had effeetnel.V barred entry into clerical work to all except young lads and girls. The award, as a whole, gave all the advantage to bovs and girls who loft secondary or technical schools about the age of 1(3, and put an obstacle in the way of those who wished to complete the secondary course at 18 or 19. Another effect would be to deter employers from giving a few weeks' work at rush periods to men who were not clerks by occupation. Such men had been useful in the past for helping with stock sheets and similar work, but the wages now required wera prohibitive unless under-rate workers' permit* could bo obtained with the consent ot the union. Above Government Level Mr. Deuxberry said he failed to see any justification for raising the women s scale maximum by 10s to £•> os a week. The Court's decision possibly had been influenced by evidence which the Clerical Workers' Association had called to show bv means of a budget that a young woman living away from honi® required an income of at least £lo.j a venr. The woman worker who presented tho budget had admitted that she had never earned more than xZ 10s a week and that she had lived on that sum. Several items in the list had boon criticised in Court including £l™ 10s for an annual holiday and £5 for hairdressing.

The new wage level for men was considerably above that of temporary clerks now employed by the Government under the Labour Department, to take one example. Mr. Deuxberrv believed that some permanent clerks in the Public Service were not receiving wages equal to those provided by the award. In his opinion, the principal result of the new increases would be greater use of accounting machines of various types in commercial offices and the employment of relatively fewer hands.