WEEKLY WAGES OF WORKERS

Southland Times, Issue 23374, 4 December 1937, Page 7

WEEKLY WAGES OF WORKERS

GENERAL INCREASE OF 5/EFFECT OF DECISION OF COURT (Special to The Times) AUCKLAND, December 3. As the result of an announcement of the Court of Arbitration in a memorandum attached to the Auckland SugarRefinery Employees’ Award that m future awards it proposes to make a general increase of 5/- a week for adult male weekly workers it is anticipated that many disputes will be settled on the wages question before they reach the court. Men closely in touch with the work of the court consider that this was in the mind of the court when it made its announcement. , The impression created by the court s intimation is that while wages in future awards will certainly show an increase of 5/- a week it is improbable that unless circumstances are altogether exceptional that anything more will be granted as many applications for awards have now accumulated. There should very soon be a fairly wide application of the court’s decision. On the other hand there are many awards recently made which do not bear a 5/- increase as well as others made some time ago so that there will be a time-lag before the standard rise is general. Although since the court has been operating under the new legislation nearly all awards have been made for a comparatively short period of one year or six months only without legislation to give it authority the court would not make a general order. GENERAL INTERPRETATION The general interpretation of the court’s memorandum in the award mentioned is that as a general principle the court will now be prepared to give an annual holiday of one week with pay if the circumstances of the industry warrant it. The principles the court has intimated it is prepared to adopt on the question of weekly pay have been anticipated in trades union circles for some time.

Oh the question of an alternative weekly wage in industries where wages have hitherto been assessed on an hourly basis it is also anticipated that the court will soon intimate in a memorandum to one of the appropriate awards it is now considering the standard it intends to pursue. It does not appear that the fixing of an alternative weekly wage will be popular with many trades unions which have used the question of broken time in favour of forcing up the hourly rate and now see that their arguments may be applied against them in the fixing of a weekly wage based on continuity of employment.