TRAMWAY AWARD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23172, 19 October 1938, Page 16

TRAMWAY AWARD

WELLINGTON TROUBLE MEETINGS OF EMPLOYEES GO-SLOW RUMOURS DISCOUNTED [BY TELEGRAPH —PfiESS association] "WELLINGTON, Tuesday Dissatisfaction with the new award recently issued by the Second Court of Arbitration was expressed by two largely-attended meetings of Wellington tramway employees this week. Wages and retrospective pay were tho chief matters discussed. The Court declined to mako an order for retrospective pay, contending that tho carrying out of any undertaking which may have been given must be left to tho parties to arrange. In a dissenting opinion the workers' representative on the Court, Mr. A. W. Croskery, stated that the Mayor of Wellington, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, had intimated at a City Council meeting that he did not think there was any objection to retrospective pay. Mr. Croskery held that it date | from February 17, 1938. Tho secretary of the Wellington Tramway Employees' Union, Mr. W. N. Broadley, said that a conference between union officials and tho tramways committee of tho City Council had been arranged, at which tho question of retrospective pay, in addition to grievances concerning the award, would be the major matters it was hoped to discuss. The union claimed that Wellington tramwaymen had not receivod any increases in wages since 1920 and that their present rates were the lowest for tramwaymen in New Zealand, in spite of tho fact that the service was the only paying . one in the Dominion at the moment. Rumours circulated throughout the city since the meetings that tramwaymen intended to commence a go-slow policy were discounted by Mr. Broadley. It was not intended meantime to cause any stoppage or interference with the present timetable. The union had no intention so far of adopting other than normal procedure in an effort to reach an amicable settlement with the council over any grievances.