HIGHER PAY ASKED BY HAIRDRESSERS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17831, 27 April 1926, Page 5

HIGHER PAY ASKED

BY HAIRDRESSERS

CONCILIATION COUNCIL HEARS DISPUTE. The Conciliation Council sat this morning to consider a dispute betw'* ,o n the Christchurch Hairdressers’ and Tobacconists’ Assistants’ Union and the employers. The Conciliation Commissioner, Mr W. H. Hagger. presided. The employers were represented by Messrs L. V. Brian, F. Creswell and R. A. Campbell, and for (he union the assessors were Messrs G. H. Perkin, John Barry and John S. Barnett. The schedule of the union’s claims was in two sections, the first dealing with male and the second with female workers. The. hours of work clauses in part 3 of the schedule, drawn up on the lines of the old sward, were agreed to, with .minor alterations. The question of work in hand was also left as in the old award. The minimum wage asked for journeymen was £5 per week. Wages to be paid weekly before the hour for ceasing jrork; casual workers, employed for less than one week, should be paid as follows:—For a long day, £1; for an ordinary day of eight hours, 17s fid; and for half a day or less, 12s 6d. In connection with holidays, the clauses, as in the old award, were agreed to, with an alteration in section b, making the hour of closing on Easter Monday 11 a.m. The whole of- clause 8, dealing with the closing of .shops, was .agreed to, being similar to the Old award, The clauses in" connection with under-rate workers and preference -of employment were agreed to on the usual > Qourt clauses. Debating the wages clauses, Mr Barnett said that in all other centres the men were being paid £4 17s 6d-. It was not right that the men in Christchurch should be treated as inferior to thofce elsewhere. The employers knew that to obtain first-class men in Christchurch they had got to pay first-class wages."" ’ ‘ 1 Mi- Campbell said that they were only fixing a minimum wage. The . *nen earned more than that. He did not think that there could be found one assistant in Christchurch who was not earning more- than the minimum wage; he assured them that the men in Christchurch were not classed as inferior to those in other.centres. • Mr Creswell: If you fix the minimum too high, it is quite possible that it may become the maximum. Mr Barnett said that the union dia not fear that. What they did object to was that the men should be classified as inferior to those in other centres. The Court had already granted elsewhere a. minimum in excess of that obtaining in Christchurch. ( Proceeding. )