WILL COST £100,000 MORE ANNUALLY

Chronicle (Levin), 5 March 1947, Page 8

WILL COST £100,000 MORE ANNUALLY

-Press Association

SETTLEMENT OF WATERSIDE DISPTJTE

3v Telearavfi—

WELLINGTON, JVIar. 4. One hundred thoupand pounds is tht officially estimated annual cost of the guaranteed dailv and weekly nvinimurn [layments to waterside workers, as provided in the recent settlement . be tween the New Zealand Waterside Workers' Union and the. Government. The Waterfront Industry Commis sioner, IMr. A. E. Bockett, issued yes terday orders giving effeet to the weekly guarantee of £5 and the daily attendanee monejr guarantee of two hours at ordinary rates at main and seeondary ports as from Monday next, exeept at Gisborne and Oamaru, fo: whieh the date of operation has not yet been fixpd. Ile ahso issued an order providing for the abolition of Haturday engagementt in Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, Dunedin, Port Ohambers, Bluff, Gisborne, Napier, Onehunga, New Plyinouth, Wanganui, Nelson, Picton, Timaru- and Oainaru. Mr; Bockett explained last night that to meet the cost of the guarantee an additional levy of -ld an liour on the employers would be necessary. The existing levies were for a holiday fund. at the rate of fourpence an hour, to meet the cost of annual and statutory holidays, and the national pay office fund, contributed to by the employers oy the basis of 2 per cent. of wages, or approximately .1 1 ti or IJd an hour. This made a total of ;r|d an hour. To this figure would be added the 2}d to bring in the recpiired £100,0(10 :j year for the guarantees under the new systeni. The whole .of these levies would be consolidated into a single national adininistration fund levy of Sd an hour. The order issued by Mr. Bockett vesterday setting up this national adininistration fund read as follows: — Tlie owners, agents, or masters of ships, and other employers of waterside labour shall pay to the Connn'ission a national levy at the rate of Hd an hour on total paid hours (union and non union, ordinary and overtinie), fbr work perfonned at the ports specified, the levies to be applied to the establish ment of a national adininistration fund for these purposes: Providing and operating labour en gagement bureaux and central pay oliices; providing for guaranteed niini mimi payments to waterside workers; providing for pay for statutory and annual holidays to waterside workers; providing and operating' amenities for waterside workers; and providing toi Ihe cost of carrying out other fuuction.-. of the ('oniuiission.