MARITIME AWARDS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18761, 27 December 1930, Page 24

MARITIME AWARDS.

LOWER WAGES SOUGHT. MOVE FOR REVISION An application has been made to the Commonwealth Arbitration Court by the Commonwealth Steamship Owners Association for a variation of existing' maritime awards. The association is seeking the deletion from the basic wage of the Powers 3s, and the calculation of that wage on a different, basis, says the “Sydney Morning Herald.” Copies of the applications have been served on those unions which have been named as respondents. Thev comprise the Merchant Service Guild of Australasia (masters and officers , the Marine Cooks and Butchers’ Union, tile Marine Stewards and Pantrymen’s Union, the Shipwrights and Carpenters’ Union, and 'the Painters and Dockers’ Union. The Seamen’s Union is not concerned, because, since its re-registration, its conditions have been governed by an agreement In an affidavit setting out the shipowners’ claims, Mr H. M. Adams, secretary of the association, states that, n i associations’ opinion, the basis or determining the basic wage, as adopted in maritime awards, is erroneous for two reasons: firstly, that it eflects the rise and fall of onlv approximately 60 per cent, ot the total commodities which determine the cost of living, and, secondly, it includes an extra 3s a week (under the Powers award) which is not now necessary for the purposes for which it was given. These, it is asserted, have had the effect of arbitrarily increasing the basic wage in advance of the true Harvester award, without any justification, the shipowners urge the Court to relieve the present heavy burden on the shipping industry by restoring maritime awards to the true Harvester standard. It is understood that the application is in line with that of the State Railway Commissioners, and although set down for hearing shortly, is unlikely to come up for hearing until after the conclusion of that case. Shipowners are anxious to receive the benefit of any decision in the railways case which might fix a lower basic wage standard. The Harvester award has for years been accepted as the basic upon which the living wage is calculated, and expresses. in present-day values, the equivalent of 7/- a day in 1907. when the award was made by Mr Justice Higgins. In 1921 Mr Justice Powers ruled that there should be an addition of 3 - a week, which he intended “to cover possible Increases in the cost of living in the quarter succeeding each adjustment of the wage, and to compensate for possible losses during the period when wages were lagging behind rapidly increasing prices.”