WAGES EXEMPTION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21245, 16 October 1940, Page 9

WAGES EXEMPTION

RETAILERS AND CLERKS DAIRY FACTORIES APPLY (By Telegraph.—'Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Tuesday Applications concerning clerical workers in retail shops and employees in dairy factories for exemption from the 5 per cent wage increase order were heard by the Arbitration Court today. Mr H. J. Bishop, assistant-secre-tary to the New Zealand Employers’ Federation, appeared on behalf ot the employers of clerical workers in retail shops seeking exemption on the ground that the payment of the 5 per cent would discriminate unfairly between the different classes of workers employed in the same establishment. Mr Herring opposed the application on behalf of the unions concerned. On behalf of the dairy factories, Mr Bishop sought exemption from payment of the increase to all employees earning more than £6 a week. Mr Bishop said it was claimed that workers receiving over that wage were already receiving sufficient to meet the increase in the cost of living and that the payment, if enforced, would have to be borne by the primary producer, who could not pass it on and that this would impose an unfair and uneconomic burden on the industry.

The application was opposed by Mr J. Murray on behalf of the New Zealand Dairy Factory Managers’ Union, and by Mr J. Ross for the New Zealand Dairy Employees’ Union.