BOOT TRADE EMPLOYEES.

Otago Witness, 1 June 1910, Page 12

BOOT TRADE EMPLOYEES.

PAYMENT FOR HOLIDAYS

ACTION BY EMPLOYEES REISEWTED. Some trouble has arisen in the boot trade in New Zealand (says the Lyttelton Times). It lias been brought about by a recent interpretation in Wellington of an award of the Arbitration Court in a case against Messrs Hannah and Co., a firm in the northern city. The case was a. test one, and it affects the whole Dom/'-ion. According to the position taken up by the union at a conference of representatives of both parties in Wellington last 'June, it was agreed that srirl apprentices should be paid for all holidays unless the -days were lost owing to the fault of the apprentices themselves. Since the award ,was made some of the employers, it is eta-ted, have tried to evade the payment for holida.Ts, and cases .were Li-ought against Messrs Hannah and Co., and also against Messrs Skelton, Frostick, and Co., of Christchurch. The case against Messrs (Hannah and Co. was dismissed by the court because the apprentice had been 'discharged bv receiving 24 hours' notice ithe day before the holidays. In the ©ther case the girls were put off in the /nsual way. without discharging then), and ithe court has held that the firm must v 'the girls for the holidays, as they had not ibeftn discharged. On Wednesday last many of the girls employed in the boot and shoe trade in Christchurch received the _ following notice: —"We regret that it will be. necessary -to dispense with your- services as from to-morrow evening, Thursday. ■Wages due up to that time will be paid as vou leave the factory. The manager will be in attendance at the warehouse at S a.m. on Monday next for the purpose of considering applications for employment. End should you desire to make fresh application it will be favourablv considered." The letter has been issued 'by all emplovers in Christchurch. • A special meeting of the Christchurch Bootmakers' : Union was to be held on Saturdav evening to consider what action should be taken. The union felt that it .■was unfair for the employers, after_ agreeing at the conference to pav the girls for all holidays, to discharge them hi order fri avoid paying for Friday a.r>d Saturday. The executive of the New Zealand Federation is in Ohristcburch. and it was ex--Tjnectcd that it would fix a noliov on-Satur-Iday evening for the whol« Dominion in accordance with the decision arrived at by the union. i When seen on Fridav evafMnp". Mr J. A. tFrostick said that there h»d been no Agreement in regard to naving the "iris [affected by the dispute f r, r the holidays. mt, was agreed tn nav for holidays only in [the factory. The girls ■about whom fttrouhle had arisen cr»nM leave on 24 pours' notice... and be dismissed on ,24 hours' notice. rr *he award given in respect to Messrs Hannah and Co.'s case made it clear that if ends were not, .uroijeTlv anrirenticed became "casual .bands." That was tha exact term used /ifcv the court. In clause 14. which deal*-. ~with female emploveo=. three classes _of employees were defined. There were in'ifentnred apprentice?, uni.ndentured apprentices, who agreed to serve for Jpears. and " casual hands." _ who co«ld iffve 24 hours' notice or receive it. The Ehird class were the girls affected, and ,sthere certainly had been no agreement at ■art 7 - time to p!> v them for holidays, f Mr C. ¥t. Waiting (secretary of the Jlew Zealand Federated Boot Trades SJnion) informed a renresentative of . the /Press on. .Friday that there is likely, to he ,snme trouble' in' the bopt, trade. Mr ilWhiting alleged that directly after the new award was made certain em.r>'<->ver<s hi (Wellington and Christchurch did _ their totmost to evade payment for. hoiidays. 'He stated that some of the are refusing to go back to the', factories, and want the union to find them employment 'and to pay their wages until it is got for Miem unless the manufacturers, when they re-engage' them, 'engage them as anpren'tioes of class 2. Mr Whiting added that be i desired to urge parents ,to see that their daughters are re-engagecf as apprentices of chtss 2.

the otristchurch trouble. CHRISTOHURCTT, May 23. In connection -with the . threatened /rouble,in the boot trade, the Christchurch Operative Bootmakers' -Union passed the following motion :—"That the executive of the federation he uwed to take lep-a! advice n". tn whether flm ,j»/»tion of tV jnanaf.<"-. v "*-* , ° Tr3a " n °\ ■ '. , that all jfttfrifttfß *W*NparcTia^:■:«, :.•»,,,.;* he

urged not to send their girls to boot factories unless they are engaged as first or second class apprentices, for unless this is done the girl may not learn the Uade, and may be discharged at any time by the employer giving 24 hours' notice." The trouble for the time being has apparently passed, as -this morning all the large boot manufacturers, reported that practically all the girls previously emplayed by them had applied for re-engage-ment. There were a few exceptions, and in some of those cases the girls had intimated that they did not intend to resume work at the trade.

As far as the opinions of the girls themselves are concerned, an employer stated that they have little sympathy with the agitation, which a few people had been responsible for fomenting. It may be mentioned that' in one case 24 girls out of 29 returned this morning, and out of five absentees three had previously given police that they were severing their connection with the trade.

Mr G. R. Whiting, secretary of the New Zealand Federated Boot Trades Union, expressed no surprise at the fact that the majority of the girls had gone back to work. The whole position, he said, was in the hands of the parents or guardians of girls who should, in his opinion, have the girls engaged either as first or second class apprentices. The executive of the federation would probably take legal advice as to whether the recent action of the manufacturers was a breach of the award.-