THE BUILDING TRADE.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15309, 9 August 1923, Page 6

THE BUILDING TRADE.

CARPENTERS' NEW AWARD. NO ONE PLEASED. THE WAGES QUESTION. The Arbitration Court's pronouncement in Auckland last month on the , claim of the building carpenters is. *£' said to have pleased no one thoroughly. Even the members of the Arbitration Court differed on the question of wages, the employers' representative considering the rates awarded too high, while quite a number of unions are averse to the settlement arrived at for exactly the opposite reason. A representative of The Dominion discussed the matter with a leading unionist, who said that in years gone by the factory joiners worked 47 hours a week on a weekly wage, while the builders' carpenters and joiners outside were paid at an hourly wage for 44 hours a week. This differentiation the unions fought strenuously against until in April, 1914, the Court placed both branches of the trade on the same footing as regards wages and •hours. Now the outside men had gone up fd an hour in wages above those working in shops, but the hours remained the same, and both were paid on an hourly basis. Under the 1914 award, the rate for outside -carpenters and joiners was Is 4Jd per hour, or £3 2s 4d a week for forty-seven hours. Of course, the rates fixed in the awards were minimum rates, and it was seldom that competent workment accepted employment on basis, or were even asked to do so. It \-, was doubtful whether there was such a margin in any other trade between it-he -wages for the average workmen and the expert worker. In the course of a talk with a couple of leading employers, The Dominion representative was told that the award had really not made the slightest difference to the trade. There was no occupation in which the pay was governed so completely by the law of supply and demand, and -while the wages paid at present were higher than under the last award, they took it that the latter were for the worker of minimum ability. Some little time ago the pay went up by 'leaps and bounds until it was out of all proportion to the services rendered, or to the wages paid in other equally skilled trades. When the reason for that was realised, and it was found to be due to a great extent, to employers bidding against each other for men without knowing how it came about, the builders got together. The result was that competition of the sort ceased and matters were placed on a fair level. The men here seemed satisfied with the existing conditions and the employers had no desire to alter them. There was plenty of work ahead in the building trade, as long as the prices asked were reasonable, and there was no doubt the men 1 themselves understood the position.