WATERSIDE BUREAU

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19333, 25 May 1937, Page 10

WATERSIDE BUREAU

EMPLOYMENT OF LABOUR MINIMUM WEEKLY PAY PLANS AT AUCKLAND (I’er Press Association.) AUCKLAND, last night. AVraiigemonts are well in band for the establishment of a bureau system in counaOfkm with waterside work in Auckland. A control board has been established, consisting) of three representatives of the employers and three representatives of the union, and details are now being worked out as 1o how the new system of decasualising wharf labour cun lie applied.

“Under the scheme which was agreed to last, .February, between the union and the employers, a certain number of men will receive £2 IQs a week as a minimum, whether they work or not,” said the manager of a. shipping otlieo.

“Roughly. I think, there are 1200 members of the Waterside Workers Union, and the scheme will embrace more than half of them. What the committee (hat, libs been appointed has to consider, in the meantime, is the class of man to be employed and the work he can do best. Age will ho taken into account, and other matters that, are necessary to consider when placing a man on the list.

“There will he a central control under a manager to he appointed by the employers. The men who are selected most be reliable workers, and they will have to report for duty every morning.

“In other words, they will have to be ‘always on tap.’ Under the present system a man can absent himself at any time. It would he impossible to commence the scheme and guarantee a large number of men a minimum of £2 10s a week if they were not. available when required." “All the shipping companies an* ineluded in the scheme, including those trading on the coast.,” said another shipping manager. “The system, which .will be in operation three or four weeks hence, is a great advance on the present, methods. It is a. genuine at temp), to make conditions better for the men. Naturally, we are all in the dark as to how it will work out. “What we do know is that il will cost the. shipping companies a large sum of money. The men will not lie. engaged as they are to-day. Those who are guaranteed £2 10s a week will he allocated to I lie ships.

“The idea is a sound one and if the right men are selected and I lie right spirit prevails, there is jio reason why the scheme should not be a thorough success. The scheme was put up In the men by the companies, and was agreed to by nil overwhelming majority. If is a dilliciilt system to organise, lint, good progress iias been made so far.”

Another informant said that the bureau system had been tried with waterside workers, both at Lyttelton and Wellington, where men had been appointed to tho ships, but unlike the Auckland scheme, there was no guarantee of weekly wages.