WEEKLY WAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26226, 9 August 1946, Page 6

WEEKLY WAGE

BUILDING TRADE WORKERS * CHANGE FROM HOURLY PAY (P-A.) WELLINGTON, Aug, 8. A weekly wage instead of the present hourly rates of pay for workers in the building trade has been agreed upon in conciliation proceedings between the New Zealand Labourers’ Federation and the employers. The workers regard this as a long-sought and important advance, which will benefit both themselves and the industry by promoting stability within it. The president of the federation, Mr P. M. Butler, said that for years the so-called unskilled workers in the building industry have been outcasts. Building operators now recognised, however, that the unskilled workers of yesterday, as a result of altered methods of production, had become skilled or, at least, semi-skilled workers.

Mr Butler hopes that the introduction of the weekly wage system will attract to the industry capable workers who have been lost to it in the past. He added that this was the last of the three main objectives which his union set out to achieve some years ago. The others were payment for statutory holidays and the granting of annual holidays. He had been particularly gratified, he added, at the attitude of the employers' representatives in the conciliation proceedings.