WORK ON N.Z. WATERFRONT

Southland Times, Issue 24163, 27 June 1940, Page 15

WORK ON N.Z. WATERFRONT

COMPARISON WITH HOME PORTS

STATEMENT BY MR WEBB

REVIEWED

(United Press Association) DUNEDIN, June 26.

“It is not so much a matter of rates of pay as of the rate at which work is done,” said a businessman today when he was questioned about the recent statement by the Minister of Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb) in defence of the waterside workers. After referring to the rates which had been in operation in New Zealand, Mr Webb said that the work done in the London docks was paid for on a piece-work basis. It worked out at 4/- an hour for the discharge of butter from New Zealand and 3/8 for cheese. Wool cargoes worked out at 3/lli an hour, chilled beef 5/IJ, general cargo 5/8 and apples 8/9. He admitted that the men were not in constant employment and that they might earn the amounts stated for only a few days at a time.

The Dunedin man said that the figures quoted by the Minister were no doubt correct, but he had entirely overlooked the fact that the London dock workers did two or three times as much work in an hour as those in New Zealand had done under the wage rates which had been in operation. Moreover, a great number of the men to whom Mr Webb referred were casual workers and pensioners who worked for only a day or two in the week. MAJOR PROBLEM Slowness in the handling of cargo, it was stated, was the major problem which had to be faced in New Zealand. Particulars were given of one case in which a boat spent 564 hours on the coast of the Dominion. Of that time 46 hours 48 minutes was occupied in steaming between ports, and 199 J hours in handling cargo. During the remaining 318 hours the ship was idle. “This,” the informant added, “happened in war time.”

It was also disclosed that the waterside workers who were engaged from 8 a.m. to midnight on the recent Sunday in unloading phosphate from a ship, taking two breaks of an hour for meals, had to be paid £4/10/6 for the day’s work. Mr Webb’s references to the Government’s action in instituting the cooperative contract system to obtain a more speedy dispatch of vessels was also the subject of comment and his statement that under this system better results to the extent of 40 per cent, had been obtained was regarded as proof that previously there had been “loafing on the job.” At the same time it was stated that better work was obtained from the waterside workers in Dunedin than from those in any other part of New Zealand, but it was pointed out that although Auckland and Wellington had better facilities than any port in the Old Country the rate of work at the home ports was very much higher.