SHOP ASSISTANTS’ AWARD

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24911, 26 June 1946, Page 3

SHOP ASSISTANTS’ AWARD

NEW CLASSES OF WORKERS COVERED The first award concerning shop assistants in the retail fruit, vegetable, cake, confectionery, and dairy industries will come ihto force on July 1, 1946. Any person who is employed in any capacity in or for those employers who carry on business by selling or offering for sale by retail, in a shop or elsewhere, fruit or vegetables, cakes, bakers’ small goods, confectionery, milk or dairy produce, shall be deemed to be a shop assistant. No worker in these categories, who is already covered by another award at the date of the making of this new award, will be affected by the new rulings. Overtime will be paid for at a rate of time and a half for the first three hours and double time thereafter, the minimum payment being Is 6d an hour, and any worker who is engaged for less than five days in any one week will be considered as a casual worker, who, if he is an adult male, must receive 3s 3d an hour. Adult female casual labour will be paid at a rate of 2s 3d, and junior males will receive the same as adult females. Junior fpmale casual labour will be paid at a rate of Is 6d an hour. Notice must be given by the employer when he 'requires that an employee work overtime, and meal money, and in the event of a worker having to work on a public holiday, one day shall be added to that worker's annual holiday or else double time must be paid to the worker in lieu of the holiday. Uniforms for employees will be the responsibility of the employer, who must provide them free of charge if he wishes them to be worn, while rates of remuneration are to be increased in the manner prescribed by the . Rates of Wages Emergency Regulations. Wages payable to shop assistants will range from £1 6s a week for male workers under 16, to £5 15s for male workers aged 21 and above. Female workers under 16 will receive £1 5s a week, and female worßers aged 21 years and above will be paid £3 10s a week under the terms of the new award, which will be operative in the Canterbury industrial district.

In a dissenting opinion, Mr A. L. Monteith, employees’ representative on the Court, said that the wage rates included in this award are less than those being received in Auckland for similar work, and that the hours of work clause mentioned no clock hours of work. Females could be employed at any hours of the day or night, he went on, and this was ’ inadvisable. Mr Monteith said the whole award, as to hours of employment, was very loose, and he considered that it would •encourage late hours of employment. since no shop closing hours were • included in it.