CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VI, Issue 1642, 20 May 1919, Page 9

CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

A LOCAL "ONE BIG UNION." SHOP ASSISTANTS' DISPUTE. With the object of considering an industrial dispute between the Christehurch retail shop assistants in the boot, hardware, stationery, fancy goods, furniture, and soft goods trades and their employers, a large gathering of representatives as* sembled in the Conciliation Commissioner's room this morning. The employees had only their three assessors present, but the employers attended in strong force, including three from Timaru. The position is that the Christehurch soft goods employees have had a union for some years. In 1917 it.was extended jto include the shop assistants of the other I trades, and duly registered. The matter ,for consideration this morning was that employers in the several branches objected I to being tied to the other trades, where the work and conditions were so different. Hitherto, the enlarged union had created no dispute. The difficulty was finally overcome by a decision to hear the i dispute in sections. i " It is not exactly the legal way,'' observed the Commissioner (Mr W. H. [Bagger). I "No," agreed Mr A. F. Drayton, as i a representative of the hardware emjployers, "but its the businesslike way." J The assessors appearing for the employees were Messrs Arnold Greenwood, R. A. Bradbury, and B. D. Martin (all drapers). Over a dozen employers were represented at the preliminary proceedings. THE DEMANDS. The demands were, in effect, as follow: —Shop assistants shall be classified as: Branch managers and manageresses, departmental managers and manageresses, window-dressers, travellers, seniors, juniors, apprentices, storemen and packers, clerks and cashiers (including males and females). In the definitions of the classes, a "senior" was stated to be an employee who had served five years as a shop assistant. An employer actually engaged in the management of his business would be classified as a senior. A "junior" was an employee who had served more than three and less than five years, and an apprentice was an employee who had served less than three years as a shop assistant. Clerks and cashiers were classified by length of service, in the same manner as seniors, juniors, and apprentices. A storeman or packer was defined as an employee engaged solely or severally in packing or unpacking goods, or as a general cleaner or messenger in the delivery of goods by hand. The following wages were asked:— Branch manager or manageress £7 5/-, departmental manager or manageress £7, window-dresser £6 5/-,' canvasser £5, senior males £5, females £3 10/.;• Assistants 16 years of age and under, entering the trade without previous experience, as follow, for males and females, respectively:—First year £1 and £l, second £1 7/6 and £1 5/-, third £1 17/6 and £1 12/6, fourth £2 15/- and £2 2/6, fifth £3 10/- and £2 10/-; thereafter (for seniors) £4 10/- and £3 5/-. Head storema i; or only storeman £4 10/-, storeman i or packer £4. Minimum wages for storemen or packers:—Seventeen years of age and under, £1 12/6; 17 and under 18, £2; 18 and under 19, £2 10/-; 19 and under 20, £3 2/6; 20 and under 21, £3 12/6; thereafter, £4; head or only storeman', £5. The wages asked for casual hands were not less than 2/6 per hour for males, nor less than 2/- per hour for females, with niinimums for any day or part thereof of 16/- and 12/- respectively. It was demanded that any female employed in selling or handling any of the following goods should be paid the wages prescribed for males:—Men's and juvenile clothing, mercery, hats, hosiery, silks, velveteens, dress goods, Manchester, furbishing, drapery, carpets, linoleums, bedding, cotton dress goods, prints, furniture, | ironmongery, and men's boots, household and general. The hours of employment asked were as follow:—Seniors and any person receiving in excess of the senior wage, from 9 a.m. to noon or 1 p.m., and 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. on five days of the week, and from 9 a.m. till 12 noon on the weekly half-holiday; juniors, as seniors, except that the commencing time shall he 8.30 a.m.; apprentices, storemen or packers, as for seniors and juniors, except that the commencement time should be 8 a.m. The union asked that no overtime nor extended hours be allowed on the half -holiday. Full holidays asked were:—Christmas Day. Boxine Day, New Year's Day, January 2, GSod Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Monday, Anniversary Day, Labour Day, union picnic day, Prince of Wales's Birthday, King's Birthday, Anzac Day, and Peace Celebrations Day. The rates asked for work on Sundays, Christmas Day, and Good Friday were double time, witli time and a-half for work on other holidays. Two weeks' holiday on full pay was asked for every year. The minimum wage demanded for lift attendants was £3 5/- per week. The union asked that the proportion of employees should be not more than one apprentice or junior to every three seniors. It was further asked that employees required to work after 5.30 p.m. should be paid 1/6 tea-money, in addition to overtime, and that each employer should provide dining-room accommodation sufficient for all employees requiring the same in his establishment. Overtime was asked at the rate of time and a-half. Other of the union's demands read:—

"It shall be the duty of each employer to provide a room furnished with suitable couches and other necessary accommodation for the exclusive use of all female employees in his employ. Each employer who employs females shall have a female porter. In any establishment where an employer requires any employee to dress in any particular style or colour (black or white included), " such garment, not being the employees' usual outdoor wearing garment, then such employer shall provide snch garment free. In all shops where female assistants are employed, reasonable cloak and dressingroom facilities shall be provided for the use of each employee." The union proposed that the operation of the award should extend over the whole of the Canterbury Industrial District, and that its term should be from February 6, 1919, to February 6, 1920. • The counter proposals of the employers were the terms of the Softgoods Employees' Award, the currency { of which has now expired. It was explained that these conditions were applicable to the new trades cited. A GENERAL DISCUSSION. Mr R. D. Martin, as secretary of the Union, detailed the steps that he hail taken to create a dispute. The Employers' Association had been informed of the registration of the fuller union and advised that a dispute 'was being created. Mr F. Cooper had been addressed as secretary of the Drapers' Association. Mr Cooper said that he had notified his association, but beyond the drapers he had no concern. Mr A. F. Drayton said that so far as the hardware trade was concerned, there was no dispute. The employees had no union, and they appeared quite satisfied with present conditions. There was no desire for association with the shop assistants of other trades. It seemed strange that drapers, grocers and hardware employees should be lumped together, as they had totally different trainings. The Commissioner: They are still shop assistants. Mr Drayton: Yes, but a draper can hardly be expected to understand the value of a hardware employee's work. Mr Martin, in reply to qceries, said that the Union had members from all the trades mentioned in its title. Mr E. Soper objected to the stationers being linked up. Many of their prices were fixed from London and were out of their hands altogether. He considered that there could be no dispute unless" there were 15 members of the union from his branch of trade. The ; Commissioner: Fifteen in the union is all that is required. Mr Martin: We have 15 from the stationers. Mr H. Y. Free raised the point as to whether, beyond the drapers, the employers had been asked for a conference. . -. The Commissioner: I think we may take it that they have not. Mr F. T. Pannell said that the boot trade had not been approached, and he considered that the employers were at a disadvantage through that. - Mr Martin replied that a conference would have brought them no nearer a settlement. The union would not have accepted the employers' offers. Mr A. F. Drayton said that he would t much prefer a union of the hardware trad 3 alone. Mr Martin: That point will come up for diseussion later on. Mr Drayton- added that while he was not antagonistic to a union, he claimed that there was no dispute, and objected to being tied up to this organisation where three drapers on either side might be' fixing up wages for hardware men. The stationers' and boot trade representatives' also persisted in their objections. The Commissioner: Then we must strike these out. Mr Martin said that if one went out all must go, but in that case the whole matter would come up again in a month's time. He quoted instances of married men working for very low wages. Putting off now would leave them so much longer labouring under such a burden.^ The Commissioner agreed that being struck out would only mean putting off the evil day. If the employers could have one hardware man, one soft-goods man, and the third from another trade as assessors, would it improve matters? He was prepared to allow several representatives of other trades to be present as agents and to participate in the discussion, although they would not be assessors. Mr Pannell said that the boot tTade had no wish to deprive its employees of proper wages, but the employers wanted, first of all, to meet, their employees. Mr Martin agreed to the presence of a number of employers' agents, beyond the assessors. Mr G. T. Dawson, of Timaru, pleaded that South Canterbury be -not tacked on to Christehurch. In the present ease, no demands had been made to the Timaru employers. He felt that there was no desire for this business on the part of the South Canterbury employees. The Commissioner pointed out that employees frequently did not lay open their hearts to the employers. Mr Drayton further objeeted to the inclusion of the hardware employees in this big union. Mr Martin suggested that an adjournment till to-morrow might help. Mr Drayton still persisted in his objection. The Commissioner then proposed that he should adjourn all save the softgoods dispute, and suggested that they might overcome the difficulty by holding separate sittings between assessors of each trade branch of the union. This was agreed to. If South Canterbury employers objected to being bound by the results, said the Commissioner, they could make such protest as they liked to the Arbitration Court. THE SOFTGOODS DISPUTE. The hearing of the dispute so far as it applied to the softgoods trade was then proceeded with. The assessors were: For the employers, Messrs H. V. Free, O. C. Cox, and F. Cooper; for the employees, Messrs A. Greenwood, R. A. Bradbury, and R. D. Martin. (Proceeding)