THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21196, 29 November 1930, Page 22

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTEk

By J. T. Paul.

' BASIC WAGE REDUCED. By the judgment of the State Industrial Court the basic wage for Queensland for men, which was reduced in July from £4. 5s to £4 per week, has been reduced further to £3 17s per week. For women the rate, which had been reduced from £2 3s to £2 Is, in July, has been fixed at £1 19s fid.. The rates for juniors are to be reduced by one-half the amount , of the reduction of the rates for seniors, and those for piecework and casual employees by 3J per cent. The' hew rates are to operate from December I.' RUSSIAN EXPERIMENTS. The Bolshevist regime is nothing if not thorough (says a Labour paper). The new calendar, dating from'Noveihber 1. 1917, has just been announced. The present year is Year 13. There are 360 working days and five revolutionary holidays. Each quarter (90 days) is divided into three months of 30 days, two days being, taken- from January and. Mareh to add to February. Each month is divided i into three decades. (10 days) and into six weeks of five days, Sunday being abolished. The new week days will probably be named Hammer, Sickle, Sun, Sheaf, and Star. ■ Russia is also looking forward to a new alphabet. It will not be long before Russia makes its language easier to other people by using Latin; characters instead of Russian. ' How to change the alphabet of 30 letters into the Latin alphabet of* only 26 has been studied , for some'time by a learned commission in . Moscow.' It is hoped that the use of ordinary letters will not only make it easier for Russian people to_ learn European languages, but that it will also help. Europeans to learn Russian. CHANGING Honolulu has sometimes been given as an instance of the “Happy Isles"’ where no fear of ’ unemployment exists; but from a letter received at the. Trades Hall (says “Industrial Tramp” in the Auckland Star), from an ■ Aucklander in search, of work, that 'fortunate state no longer, He is a plasterer by trade, and left his wife and family in Auckland to seek employment. I He writes: "I arrived here on October 3, after a pleasant voyage of 11 days. I could not obtain employment at my trade, eo I took another job, which finished last evening. Things have changed since I was here last, in December, 1929. The wage then for plasterers was .over £2 a day, and many got £2 10s, as there was a union in existence. The union has gone under, and I understand that if a white man can get a job he has to be a firstclass man to get £1 12s a day. Japanese have the bulk of the work here, and they employ their own countrymen only. These were always non-unionists, and therefore were responsible for the union going out of existence. • “In 10 years from now, the white workers on, this island will be very scarce, for, almost everywhere you look you see Orientals, Portuguese and Filipinos at work! There are over 75,000 children of Oriental parentage going to school this year, which means that in 10 years’ time they will have graduated into workers. The population at present is 120,000. , It will be too big a risk for me to go on' to the mainland (U.SA..), because ‘the winter is fast approaching, so I will stay here a little longer and see if . things pick up. At present the weather is very hot.” QUEENSLAND UNEMPLOYED FUND. The seventh annual.report on operations under the Unemployed Workers’ Insurance ActSj just presented to the Queensland Parliament, showed that the Unemployed Insurance Fund -receipts during the yeap ended June 30, 1030, were £490,567, and disbursements were £517,780, leaving a deficiency of £27,212 for the year. . ■ The report state® that the balance to the credit of the fund at July 1, 1929, was £62,997, -and.,at June 30, 1930, Was £35,784. Disbursements . consisted of: (a). Sustenance payments, £494,483: administrative and, general expenditure. £23,296. . _ • . Following is a comparison of receipts and disbursements -for- the past five financial years:- , . < " ‘ . Disburse- ■ Receipts. meats. J 925-26 .. .. £256,976 £248,300 1926- .. 263.523 360,958 1927- .. .. 342,681 412,219 1928- .. .. 491.503 439,171 1929- .. .. 490,567- 517,780 Contributions to the fund were as follow: By workers, £162,961; by employers, £162,961; by the State, £164,466; sundry receipts, £177. The State. in its capacity of-, employer, contibuted £34,891. A similar amount was contributed by State permanent' employees. The'• total revenue from permanent employees of the State was £104,673. The value of stamp sales during the year was £256,141. as compared with £260,183 during the preceding year. A comparison ’of the numbers of applicants for sustenance, the total sustenance paid, and the average amount paid to each, worker during the past five years, each year ending on Marti 31, shows that there has .been a large increase in the number of ■ applicants and in the amount of sustenance paid, also that individual unemployment :has been of - longer, duration, which is indicated by the increase in. the average amount of sustenance paid to each worker. SHEARING RATES IN AUSTRALIA. After an exhaustive hearing, during which lengthy evidence and argument were tendered, the State Industrial Court of Queensland has made the following judgment : . Hitherto the shearing rates in this State have been based mainly, if not wholly, on the Federal shearing award, with duo allowance for conditions peculiar to Queensland. This appears from the judgments of the President of the Court of Industrial Arbitration (the late Chief Justice M'Cawley.in 1920. 1921, and 1824. In the 1920 judgment the late Presi* dentsaid: “In 1907. O’Connorj J., then President, of the. Federal Arbitration Court, awarded 24a per hundred. Knibfaa’ tables as to the purchasing power of money show,that what would cost 15s lid in Brisbane in 1907 would cost 32a 3d in March, 1920; what in the capital towns cost 17s lid in 1907 cost 32s 9d in March,' 1920. A rate of 40s per hundred would put the effective wages of the shearer at no higher level than in 1907 —unless he can shear considerably more sheep now than he could then.” , After reviewing the methods adopted by O Connor, Jin 1907, and by Higgins, J., in 1911 and 1917, and quoting certain ' figures , peculiar to Queensland, the late president proceeded to say: “ On the whole I am of opinion that a rate of 40s per 100 with fares one way is not more than equivalent to the rate of 24a awarded in 1907.” In his 1921: judgment he stated in reference to the 1921 rate that: “ Knibbs’s statistics show' that the purchasing power . of money for the latest available period—the quarter ended March, -1921—is substantially the same as for 1920.” In August, 1924, he raised the shearing rates to 45s per 100, statipg that “wool raising is for the time being not only a prosperous industry but an exceptionally prosperous one.” In December last, this additional prosperity rate of Ss was taken away by the Board of Trade and Arbitration. The judgments in 1920 and 1921 show that the late president _ considered that in reviewing the' shearing rates subsequent to 1920, he should take into consideration the cost of living in 1920 and subsequent changes therein. ' Now the index number for the March quarter of 1920, which was taken into consideration by the late president in hie 1920 judgment was 1613,. as against 1406 for the September quarter of 1930. These are the index numbers for food, groceries, and rent of all houses, which are employed in this court and. the Federal Court in adjusting wages to the „oat of living. This is a reduction of 12.84 per cent, in the index number, whereas thq claimant organisations are seeking a reduction of 12.5 per cent, in the shearing rates. If. I apply the reasoning of the late president as I understand it, then giving full effect to the change in the cost 6f. living, the shearing rate would be reduced to 35s per 100. However, just as the late president applied the methods of the Federal Court

of his day in fixing shearing rates, eo, 1 think, should this court pay due regard to the awards of the present Federal Court made for other States. But this makes no difference in the result, as the judgment of Chief Judge Dethridge of July 14 last, fixed the shearing rate at 32s fid for the Eastern States, in view of the position of the woo! raising industry in these States, The industry in Queensland is, in no better position. This, indeed, was hot contested by the unions, but if an authoritative statement of the position in Queensland is desired it will be found in the annual report of the Department of Public Lands for 1929. The employers, however, do not ask for a reduction below 355. This rate is actually 3s. per 100 more than the Federal rate for the other eastern States, seeing that .clause 6 (a) of the State award provides, that the employer shall add to the earnings of the employee fid for every 100 sheep shorn by hiin, a provision which will be retained in the State award. In view of, the catastrophic fall in the prices of wool and station products I do not see how this court can refuse togive.full effect to the change in the cost of living figures or can justify a mors favourable method of arriving at the wages of employees engaged in the shearing section of the wool raising industry than that adopted by the late president in 1920, when the industry was fairly prosperous, if not highly so. In any case, no different method was suggested by the unions. The shearing rates will be reduced to 36s per 100, that is, by 10 per cent. The rates for sheep shearing experts and grinders will be £7 15s a week, while that of engine drivers and firemen on both sheen and cattle stations will be £4 a week with keep. All other rates will be reduced by approximately 10 per cent. Certain minor alterations not necessary to specify in this iudgment will be made in conditions. The variation of the awards will take effect from December !. 1930.