LIVING WAGE REDUCTION

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1929, Page 11

LIVING WAGE REDUCTION

NEW SOUTH WALES DECISION > VIGOROUS . OPPOSITION AROUSED. REVISION OF CHILD ENDOWMENTS, By Telccra-ph—Press Assn.—Copyright, Rec. 10.20 p.m. Sydney, Dec. 20. A full bench of the industrial commission sitting at Sydney to-day declared the living wage in New South Wales for a emu.. wife and one child at £4 2s 6d a week and for an adult female, employee at £2 4s fid. Mr. Justice Fiddington, president of tho commission, dissented and in scathing remarks upon the conditions under which the commission was forced to act he likened the commission to a computing machine, ■ The old rate for an adult family >consisting of a man, wife and two children was £4 ss, so, that the new basic wage represents a drop of 6d but covers a man, wife and only one child. Hie * Government intends to revise the child endowment plan, whereby employees under State awards shall pay sixpence ■•a week towards a fund to which the Government will add a subsidy. When tho Legislative Assembly met to-day Mr. J. T. Lang, Leader of the Opposition,. demanded that tho Government should suspend the basic wage declaration. His motion for suspension of the declaration was defeated by 44 votes to 32.