LABOURERS' CLAIMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24102, 22 October 1941, Page 8

LABOURERS' CLAIMS

RATE OF £l/1/4 A DAY

ARBITRATION COURT HEARING [BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Tuesday The Dominion builders, contractors and general labourers' industrial dispute, affecting 1500 workers, came before the Court of Arbitration in Wellington to-day. The hearing is expected to continue to-morrow and on Thursday. The Court consists of Mr. Justice Tyndall, with Mr. W. Cecil Prime, employers' representative, and Mr. A. L. Monteith, workers' representative.

The principal matter in dispute is wages. It was agreed in Conciliation Council that, except where otherwise specified, a week's work should not exceed 40 hours. To-day, Mr. P. Butler, for the workers, began the reading of a typewritten statement of 117 foolscap pages.

The union claims the following minimum rates of wages:—Workers employed in building and allied undertakings, or in civil engineering operations, 21s 4d a day; general labourers otherwise employed, 20s 8d a day. The present minimum rates range from 2s 4d to 2s 7d an hour, according to the class of work done. "We do not desire the Court to set down a base wage equally applicable to the pick and shovel men on site clearing and to the average building trades worker or civil engineering worker," said Mr. Butler. He thought the Court would probably agree that the former worker would fall into the category commonly described as "unskilled" and the latter into the category of "semiskilled." It was suggested, therefore, that proper acknowledgment should be given to the building trades and civil engineering workers, and that the minimum rates be applied to other general labourers.