PLUMBERS’ AWARD

Southland Times, Issue 23346, 2 November 1937, Page 7

PLUMBERS’ AWARD

EXEMPTION SOUGHT BY EMPLOYERS (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 1. The contention that maintenance workers in various industries should be bound by the general conditions governing those industries rather than by awards applying to their respective occupations was advanced by Mr W. E. Anderson, secretary to the Auckland Employers’ Association in the Arbitration Court when appearing for several groups of employers who were applying for exemptions from the New Zealand Plumbers’ and Gasfitters’ Award. Mr Anderson also asked that the payment of the plumbers concerned in the dispute should be changed from an hourly to a weekly basis. All the Dominion freezing and gas companies, the Auckland Transport Board, the Colonial Sugar Refimng Company, Limited, and the United Repairing Company, Limited, sought special conditions under the award, while all the fertilizer companies in New Zealand and the Waikato Hospital Board applied for total exemption. In dealing with the applications individually Mr Anderson illustrated his contention with the case of the freezing companies. Various companies worked a 44-hour week over 5J days, killing being done on Saturday mornings. A drainage system was then in use and it was necessary that plumbers should be on duty. “All the maintenance hands employed by freezing companies are just as much part of the industry as are the slaughtermen and it is only common sense that these hands should follow the conditions of the industry,” he added. They should receive the award wages to which they ■were entitled, but the other conditions should be those obtaining in the industry as a whole.” Mr J. Clark, secretary of the New Zealand Plumbers’ and Gasfitters’ Federation, said the plumbers did not want a weekly wage. They should receive the benefit of the full casual rate of pay. The hearing was adjourned.