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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17437, 8 April 1931, Page 8

It may cause general surprise among shop employees formerly governed by the operation of the, Gisborne shop assistants award to hear that the award is now no more, the term of the agreement having expired recently. A s 11 result of this expiration of the award, (lie. only regulations governing conditions of work, rates of pay, and holidays in the •-;<ilt. goods, hoot and shoe, fancy goods, leather fancy goods, hardware, crockery, hooks and stationery, and furniture and furnishing trades are those of the Whops and Offices Act. These regulations are merely broad out, lines of the legal liability of employer rind employee, and represent a stage in industrial development, some way behind that represented by the' award which recently expired. For instance, the Shops and Offices Act lays down (lie rate of pay for a first-year employee at lbs tier week, with annual increases of its per week to a maximum of 30s. These mies an- far below the general plane of the award rates, another prime difference being that- the award specified hoii lin vs on Easter Saturday, Faster Monday, ami similar festivals, whereas under the Shops and Offices Act there, is no obligation on the employer to release Pis staff on those days. It seems it foregone conclusion that an parly application will be made for the renewal of the expired award.