PRINTING INDUSTRY DISPUTE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23186, 27 April 1945, Page 4

PRINTING INDUSTRY DISPUTE

Classification Clause Contested (N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON. April 26. When the combined printing trades dispute came before the Court of Arbitration to-day, it was disclosed that agreement had been reached in all matters except classification. In a Conciliation Council in November. 1944, the employers agreed to a modification of the classification to include in Class 1 towns with a population of more than 2000 (the previous Class 2 related to towns with a population of 6000 and under) which would have meant an increase in wages for day workers affected as follows: For linotype operators 10/- a week, for machinists and hand compositors 12/6 a week superimposed by an increase in the night allowance from 10/- to 15/- a week. This was not ratified by the Court which, following its pronouncement of March 17, specifying standard rates of wages, referred the whole dispute back to the Council of Conciliation. As a result of the altered circumstances since November, 1944, arising primarily from the Court’s standard wage pronouncement, the employers at the second Conciliation Council hearing declined to agree to the modification of the classification on the ground that the increases in the case of workers in towns of a population exceeding 2000 and under 6000 would be 16 '8 a week for linotype operators and 19/2 for machinists and hand compositors, both amounts increased by the Court’s two cost of living bonuses. This, it was contended, would be inconsistent with the Court’s pronouncement.

Mr K. Baxter appeared for the workers at to-day’s hearing and Mr E. W. Clarkson for the employers. Mr Baxter submitted that the proposed alteration to the classification did not in any -sense make for the breaking of the policy of economic stabilisation. It did seek to promote a certain bending so far as the printing industry was concerned. The Court reserved its decision.