FURNITURE TRADE DISPUTE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11658, 13 June 1912, Page 6

FURNITURE TRADE DISPUTE.

(Per Press Association. ) Duncdin, June 12. A sitting of the Conciliation Council was held to-day to consider the furniture trade dispute. Mr J. R. Triggs (Commissioner) presided, and the assessors were Messrs Nees, Hayward, and Riddell for the employer and Messrs Moriarity (Wellington), Ruston, and Pattison for the employees. The following agreement was arrived at, and will apply to Otago and Southland: —44 hours shall constitute a week's work; the wages for journeymen cabinetmakers, upholsterers, chair and frame markers, machinists, wood carvers, turners, furniture framers and picture framers, and polishers shall be Is 4Jd per hour. After an apprentice completes his term he may be employed as an improver for six months at Is lid per hour, and for a further six months at Is 3d per hour. Two hours' notice shall be given on either side before dismissal or leaving employment; overtime, rate] and a quarter for the first two hours and time, and a-half thereafter until 10 p.m. Apprentices' wages shall be 8s for the first year, 12s for the second, 16s for the third, 21s for the fourth, and 2Ss 6d for the fith; the proportion of apprentices to journeymen shall not exceed one to two; the period of apprenticeship to be five years. The usual preference and under-rate clauses are provided. The award comes into force on July Ist, and will remain in force till June 30th, 1914.