WAGE REDUCTION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17439, 10 April 1931, Page 7

WAGE REDUCTION

MUTUAL AGREEMENT BREACH OF THE LAW (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Southland fanners and throslriiigmill workers came to a mutual agreement that wages be reduced to Is (id an hour from the award rate of Is llild. Both employees and employees have committed a breach of the award but the Labor Department is not going to prosecute. The matter was brought before the notice of the Minister of Labor by the Rev. Clyde Carr (Labor, Timam), who, 'Yin an urgent question, stated that a ’ breach of the award had been investi-gated-by the Invercargill inspector of awards, whose report had reached Wellington. He wished to know whether a prosecution would follow as the inspector had the necessary evidence from the Balfour district. The reduction represented 20 per cent., but the saving to farmers was only £4 per annum. The member declared that farmers had dismissed workers who refused to accept the reduction. The Hon. S. G. Smith, Minister of Labor, replied that employers and employees under the thrcshingmill award in Southland had agreed upon reduced wages. It was also known that this constituted a breach of the award, both by the farmers and the workers. Tho farmers had told their men that they could not afford to pay award rates, and the employees realised this, and that unless lower wages were accepted work would not be done by them, whilst in other eases it would bo done by the farmers themselves. Mr. Carr: Borne of the men have been locked out. Tho Minister: In view of all the circumstances, including the low price of grain, tho Government has decided not to prosecute either the employers or the employees in this particular instance. (Hear, hear, from the Opposition benches.)