CONCILIATION COUNCIL

Otago Witness, Issue 3415, 29 August 1919, Page 12

CONCILIATION COUNCIL

SHEARERS' DISPUTE. PARTIAL AGREEMENT REACHED. CHRISTCHURCH, August 20. Before the Conciliation Council, the dispute between the Canterbury Sheep Owners' Union and the Canterbury Shearers' Union was heard. The dispute was rather unusual in that the case, was brought by the employers and not by the workers. The employers' main proposals were:— Hours of work, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., shearing to stop at 4 p.m. on Saturdays; rate of pay 25s per 100, with rations, in addition to a bonus of 5s per 100; in cases where shearers find their own rations, an extra 49 per 100 to be paid. The rate for stud sheep shall ba settled by agreement. The rafca for shearing hogget rams shall be rate and a-half, and for other rams doubk- rates. The rates for shed hands shall be: Pressors aod rollers, 47s 6d per w-eek; all other hands, 455; cooks, 655; cooks' assistants, 455, in addition to a bonus of 10s to all weekly hands. Pressers and rollers, when not employed by the week, shall be paid Is 5d per hour, and other shed hands Is 4d, in addition to a bonus of 5d per hour.

Where workers provide their own rations an extra 15s per week shall be paid. Tho workers asked for 32s 6d per 100, ■with rations, and double rates for shearing rams, stags, and doublc-fleeeed shocp. Five pounds per week was asked for rollers and £4 for other shed hands; cooks, £6 to £8; and cooks' assistants, £5 10s. After consideration a flat rate of SOs per hundred was agreed to, but no settlement was reached regarding the payment of shed hands, cooks' hours, rates for double-fleeced sheep, dagging, fares, learners, waiting time, crutching, or tho employment of a hutkeeper. Many other clauses weare agreed to, among them being those relating to the methods of payment of workers, control of abeds, free grazing, and contract work. The employers also undertook to import £3OO Worth of hand shears, and, to sell them at cost through the union The clauses on which no agreement was reached were referred to the Arbitration Court.