Suggested Margins For Skill

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31000, 4 March 1966, Page 14

Suggested Margins For Skill

A margin of £4 a week for the skill of a compositor over a general hand in the printing industry has been suggested by the Court of Arbitration, in a memorandum just issued.

The suggested basic rates are £lB 5s a week for a bona fide compositor, the present rate being £l6 4s, and £l4 5s a week for a general hand, whose present rate is about £l3. New classifications of skill in the printing industry, as drawn up by the employers, are now ready for presentation to the Court of Arbitra-

tion, unless they can be agreed on in conciliation. But as these may not be fully accepted by the Printing Trades Union, the Court expects to have to arbitrate on them, before fixing margins for skill. It has issued its suggested basic rates, as quoted, “as a positive guide to the parties.” “The Court is anxious and willing to increase margins, and will do so when it has the material’ before it to make a decision,” says the memorandum, signed by Judge A. P. Blair. The Printing Trades Union’s present case before the Court is being regarded as a test case on margins of skill. It came before the Court on December 1 last, but was adjourned to enable the employers comprising the Master Printers’ Association and the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association—to submit new classifications of skill, within eight weeks. The Court has said, however, that the workers should not suffer by reason of the delay. Margins for skill are a matter of great importance and significance, says the Court’s memorandum, and the union and employers had done a public service by bringing the problem into the open, for examination. “We think much credit is due to those responsible for getting their teeth into this difficult industrial problem,” it says.