GASWORKS EMPLOYEES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23529, 18 June 1938, Page 5

GASWORKS EMPLOYEES

NEW DOMINION AWARD HOURS AND WAGES CLAUSES The New Zealand gasworks employees’ award, which has been issued by the Court of Arbitration and which will come into force for one year from Monday, contains, inter alia, the following provisions: The following shall be the minimum rates of wages,--Shift workers engaged in the manufacture of gas—(a) horizontal retorts (hand stoking)' Where only one man is employed, £1 2s per shift; where more than one man is employed per shift, leading stoker, £ 1 2s 6d; where more than two men are employed per shift, leading stoker, £1 3s; other stokers, £1 2s. (b) Horizontal retorts (hand-oper-ated machine stoking); Where more than two men are employed, stoker in charge. £1 3s 6d; other stokers, £1 3s. (c) Horizontal retorts (power-stoking machines): Leading hand or working shift foreman, £1 3s 9d; charging and pushing machine operators, stokers, retort patcher and scurfer, pipejumpers, water gas operators, and coke transporter men. £1 Is Bd, fire cleaners regularly employed on shift work or day work, £1 Is 6d. (d) Continuous vertical retorts: Leading operator, £ 1 4s; other operators, £1 3s; fire cleaners employed regularly on shift work or day work, £ 1 Is 6d. (e) Vertical chamber ovens: Leading operator, where more than one man is employed per shift, £1 2s 6d; leading operator, where more than two men are employed per shift, £ 1 3s; other operators and water gas operators, £1 2s; fire cleaners where regularly employed on shift work or day work, £1 Is fid. (f) Engine drivers shall be paid the rates provided in any award covering stationary and traction engine drivers for the time being in force in the district concerned. (g) Ammonia plant and tar plant operators, £ 1 Os fid. Day Workers. The following classes of workers shall be paid the rates prescribed in any award or industrial agreement for the time being in force covering such workers but, if not so covered, they shall be paid the rates mentioned: Tinsmiths, sheet-metal workers, dry meter repairers, where soldering has to be done to meters, gas fitters, main laying gangers (in charge of not fewer than six men), electricians, blacksmiths, locomotive drivers, 2s 9d per hour; cast-iron dry meter repairers, where no soldering is required to meters, wet meter repairers, service layers, main layers and jointers, head storemen, telpher drivers, men employed chipping, cleaning, painting and/or spraying steel and iron structures, 2s 7Jd per hour; locomotive firemen, blacksmith’s strikers, stove meter and other shopmen reconditioning stoves, maintenance men, complaints men, 2s fid per hour; showroom attendants, salesmen and- meter readers, 2s fid per hour; by-product operators, 2s 4|d per hour; operator tar distilling plant on day work, 2s 5d per hour; other workers, 2s 4Jd per hour. Workers, other than shift workers, shall be granted one clear week’s holiday after each complete 12 months of service at his ordinary rate of pay. Shift workers, after each complete 12 months of service, shall be allowed a holiday of two clear weeks (10 working days) at their ordinary rate of pay. The following shall, be the minimum rates of wages payable to youths:—Sixteen to 17 years of age, first six months, £1 5s per week; second six months, £1 10s; 17 to 18 years of age, first six months, £1 15s; second six months, £2; 18 to 19 years of age, first six months £2 10s; second six months £2 15s; 19 to 20 years of age, first six months, £3; second six months, £3 ss; 20 to 21 years of age, first six months, £3 15s; second six months. £4; thereafter adult wages. The hours of work for all yardmen and drivers shall be 44 per week.

The hours of work for complaints men shall be as follows:—Two sets of hours per day may be worked in the complaints department. The first set of hours shall be worked between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m on five days of the week, and between 8 a.m. and 12 noon on Saturdays The second set of hours shall consist of eight hours worked consecutively between the hours of 1 p.m. and 9 p.m on six ordinary days of the week; provided that no worker shall work more than 84 hours in each period of two weeks, nor more than 44 hours in an' one week; provided, further, that workers employed on the afternoon set of hours on six days per week, including Saturday afternoon, shall be paid an allowance of 10s per week in addition to their weekly wages. The working hours for gatekeepers and watchmen shall be between the hours of 6.30 a.i% and 10.30 p.m. on each day from Monday to* Friday, both days inclusive, and between the hours of 6.30 a.m and 1 p.m on Saturdays. Provided that no worker shall work more than 84 hours in each period of two weeks, nor more than 44 hours in any one week. The hours of work for all other workers, including maintenance men and shift men. shall be 40 per week exclusive of overtime. The ordinary hours- for shift workers shall be as follows:—-A week’s work shall consist of five shifts not exceeding eight hours each Workers shall change shifts as may be mutually arranged, so that no worker shall average more than 20 shifts in the period of 28 days. Total exemption from the provisions of the award has been granted to the following:—Acetone Illuminating and Welding Company, Ltd (Auckland) Dunedin Municipal Gas Department (Dunedin), Masterton Gas Department (Masterton), Lyttelton Municipal Gas Department (Lyttelton) The award applies only to gasworks with an output of over 12,000,000 cubic feet.