REDUCTIONS OF WAGES

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1932, Page 9

REDUCTIONS OF WAGES

CONCERTED ACTION DENIED

AGREEMENT for WAREHOUSES.

700 employers party to award

ADULTS LOSING FIVE PER CENT

By Telegraph.—Press Association.

Wellington, Last iSight. After an eleventh hour deadlock on the question of overtime rates had been overcome, complete agreement . was reached in the Conciliation Council between the New Zealand federated storemen and packers (other than in retail shops) and warehouse employees and their employers. More than 700 employers will be parties to the new award. The main points of the agreement which, when ratified by the Court, will form an award with a term of one year, arc that the workers will accept a 5 per cent, reduction on the present net rates for adults and a substantial reduction in the. rates for juniors. Hours and overtime remain unaltered. . In the course of the proceedings Mr. T. O. Bishop, for the employers, took the opportunity to issue.an emphatic denial to a statement made at Auckland that the employers had decided upon a concerted policy for a reduction of wages. Mr. Bishop said he had always advised the employers to pay the highest wages possible. Mr. Miller, Auckland, one of the employees’ assessors, said it was strange similar clauses were so often encountered in the employers’ proposals. Mr. Bishop said that was not so. Some employers had based their proposals upon a 5 per cent, reduction, others on 10 per cent., and some had used the existing award rates as a basis.