FREEZING WORKS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 884, 4 October 1933, Page 8

FREEZING WORKS.

Terms and Conditions of Employment. The terms and conditions of employment in the meat export freezing works in the Dominion during the coming season have already been posted up in various works in the Canterbury province. With few exceptions the terms offered are similar to those which operated last season, and to which a large body of the unionists in both the North Island and South Island objected. As the result of the refusal of many regular workers in the industry to accept the new terms imposed, the employers in most cases installed “ chains ” in their works and engaged free labour ta operate them. The Chain System. A reflection of this policy is the inclusion in the new conditions of a clause relating to workers under the chain system. It reads as follows: “ Rate of pay for chain slaughtermen—All sheep and all lambs (including ram lambs), Is 10d an hour. This rate per hour shall be paid until the chain is capable of earning the equivalent of Is 10d per hour on piecework rates. At works where the ring system of slaughtering is installed the hourly rate of pay shall be as mutually arranged—minimum rate Is lOd an hour. Workers shall be interchangeable on the chain or ring where required by the employer.” The rate of pay offer represents an increase of id an hour on that paid the free labourers last season. A clause which presumably refers to solo workers also provides for an increase from £1 10s per hundred to £1 12s per hundred for all sheep “ not otherwise specified.” Keen Competition Likely. The export freezing season in Canterbury will commence about the first week in December, and the indications are that there will be keen competition for the work offering. As a result of the strike last season, many free labourers were taken on, and quickly became proficient on the chain —a system which apparently has come to stay—and there is nothing to indicate that they will not again be seeking employment this year. On the other hand, experienced men who*.stood out against the employers’ terms last season will be on the labour market as a result of the calling off of the strike at the close of last season, and it is probable that many of them will be reinstated in favour of some of the less proficient of the free labour-