THE BUILDING INDUSTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23299, 17 September 1937, Page 10

THE BUILDING INDUSTRY

NEW WAGE RATES FIXED BASED ON COURT'S PRONOUNCEMENT JPeb Unjtep Press Association* WELLINGTON. Sept. 16. The hearing of the builders, contractors, and general labourers' dispute was continued in the Conciliation Council in Wellington to-day before Mr S. Ritchie, conciliation commissioner. The agreements reached affect all industrial districts in the Dominion, apart from the northern areas. The wage rates agreed to were based on the minimum rate of 2s 4d an hour, as set out in the court's pronouncement, with additional proportionate payments for special workers as set out in the present Wellington award. The following are the hourly rates agreed on for special workers: — Scaffolders. 2s 7d; tunnel and timber men, 2s 7d; explosives' men, 2s 5Jd; asphalt and tile workers, 2s 6d; concrete workers, 2s 4>}d; dog men, power crane men, and power winchmen operating winches of 15 h.p. or more in connection with building operations, 2s 7d; men using pneumatic hammers, drills, rammers, borers, or breakers. 2s 6d (when such men are employed in tunnelling or in quarrying, the rate to be 2s 7d); men cleaning or clearing blocked sewers or drains, etc., 2s a day extra; demolition workers, or men engaged in repairs to buildings or fillings destroyed or damaged by fire, who have to handle charred timber, 2s 6d an hour; workers engaged in demolition work, 2s 5Jd. Men employed in sinking shafts, sumps, pier holes, or working in trenches more than six feet in depth shall be paid the following rates:— More than six feet and up to and including 12 feet, 2s 6d; more than 12 feet and up to and including 20 feet, 2s 7d; more than 20 feet, 2s 7d plus Id an hour for every seven feet more than 20 feet.

The new rates of wages are to operate from the date of the agreement. September 16. 1937. The term of the award is 12 months. The workers governed by this award arc to work a 40-hour flve-day week, the daily hours to be between 7.30 a.m. and 5 p.m.