TRANSPORT DRIVERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24826, 28 January 1942, Page 6

TRANSPORT DRIVERS

AWARD PROCEEDINGS HIGHER WAGES CLAIMED EMPLOYERS’ OPPOSITION (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 27. On the ground that every effort should be devoted to assisting the Government in its war effort at the present critical period, the employers opposed an increase of wages asked for by the New Zealand Road Transport and Motor and Horse Drivers’ Industrial Association of Workers in the application for a new Dominion award in the Conciliation Council at Wellington to-day. The workers claimed that the ordinary hours of omnibus and service car drivers should be 40 a week, not to exceed nine daily, and to be worked within the span of 11 consecutive hours. They asked that the minimum wage should be £6 a week, and that overtime should be paid for at the rate of time and a-half for the first four hours and double time thereafter, Employers’ Proposals The employers in their counter proEosals suggested that the ordinary ours of work for omnibus drivers should be 88 a fortnight, provided that the maximum hours that might be worked in any week without payment of overtime should be 48. The daily hours and the daily span of hours, they claimed, should not exceed the number prescribed in the licence in accordance with the transport licensing passenger regulations. Where shift work was performed, it was suggested that a day should be deemed to mean a period of 24 consecutive hours from 2 a.m. till 2 a.m. Three periods of 24 consecutive hours off duty, it was claimed, should be allowed each driver each fortnight, two periods in one week and one in the other.

In regard to service car drivers, the employers claimed that the ordinary hours of vrork should be 96 a fortnight, provided that the maximum worked in any week j without payment of overtime should be 52. For casual drivers, it was suggested that these might be employed at 2s lid an hour ordinary time, and 3s 4d an hour for time worked in excess of 10 hours on any one day. It was claimed that the minimum wage payable to omnibus and service car drivers should be £5 5s a week.

When the clause dealing with the rates of wages was reached, Mr F. C Allerby, for the workers, said that for the employers to offer £5 5s a week as a minimum rate, taking into consideration the class of drivers, was an insult to the workers. When the present award was made in June, 1938, the Court awarded the drivers £5 10s a week, plus a cost of living bonus of 5 per cent. Omnibus and service car companies to-day were allowed to overcrowd their vehicles, and the drivers had scarcely elbow room to drive their buses, let along collect fares. Time of Crisis

Mr N. B. Spencer (Auckland), an employees’ assessor, said that he considered it was a waste of time for both workers and employers to discuss a rise iff wages during the present critical state of the country. Mr A. S. Bailey (Auckland), an employers’ assessor, said he agreed that the workers had an argument for an increase in wages on account of the increase in the cost of living. He agreed that £5 5s a week was not enough, and was prepared to offer the rate in the present award, £5 10s a week. It was the duty of every person in the country to support the Government in its war effort, and to raise wages at the present time would only have the effect of increasing the fares to the public. If the drivers had to do a little extra at the present time, they should be willing to do it as their common contribution to the national effort., “ We will all have to do our utmost,” he added. “If we do not. we will be sunk.” He declared that everyone at the present time should do all they could to combat the vicious spiral of rising prices. Mr Allerby pointed out that the employers were asking for an increase in hours, which would have to be taken into consideration in fixing wages. The workers need not be concerned about passenger transport companies making excessive profits, as legislation had been framed to prevent this. Offer by Workers

After both sides had conferred, Mr Allerby said that the workers were prepared to accept an increase in wages of 5s a week for the present hours and the conditions of the present award. The reasons which justified them in asking for the increase were the present overloading of buses, the added responsibilities of drivers due to the black-out, the fact that fewer drivers were now employed while more passengers had to be carried, and the increase in the cost of living. ■ Mr H. J. Bishop, employers’ advocate, said that the employers’ assessors had not yet come to a decision in regard to the hours and wages for service car drivers, but would reply to the offer made by the workers when the council resumed its sitting. The hearing will be resumed at 10 a.m. to-morrow.