GROCERS' DISPUTE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 466, 26 March 1909, Page 6

GROCERS' DISPUTE.

SUMMARY OF NEW AWARD.

Most of the provisions in tho new Award, which camo to hand last night, wcra agreed on by the parties. The Court has added to tho clause granting preference to unionists, a proviso exempting Chinamen and tho workers employed by them from tho operation of tho provision. That stipulation was contained in tho previous award, and tho Court thought it desirable to havo it'repeated in tho new award, 'l'ho minimum raw of wages in respect'of assistants of and over ' tho ago of 23 years is fixed at £2 ss. per week. With regard to other assistants, tho rato shall bo:—Of tho ago of fifteen up to sixteen, 10s. per week; sixteen to seventeen, 15s. per week; seventeen to eighteen, £1 per week; oightoen to nineteen, £1 ss. per week; nineteen to twenty, £1 10s. per week; twenty to twenty-one, £1 15s. per week; twenty-one to twenty-two, £2 per week; twenty-two to twonty-threo, £2 2s. per week. Drivers who aro employed as drivers only, and over the ago of twenty-three years, shall bo paid not less than £2 7s. per week for driving and attending ono horse, and not less than £2 lis. por week for driving and attending to two or moro horses. If 3, driver drive* ono horso and attonds to that arid a chango horso, ho shall bo paid not less than £2 Bs. por week. Drivers under tho ago of twentythroe years shall bo paid according to tho scale prescribed for assistants undor the ago of twenty-threo years. No youth under tho ago of sixteen years shall bo employed in driving. An assistant may act' as a driver, or a driver as an assistant; provided always that _if an assistant is required as a part of his regular duty to drive 0110 or moro horses ho shall bo paid not loss than tho wages payable to a driver for tho 6amo work.

It is stated in a momo. appended to tlio •award that the Court refused in 1902 to limit tho number of youths t6 bo employed in a grocer's shop, and tho union had not mado out that by reason of nnif chnngo in conditions sinco 1902 an alteration in this respect was nccessar.v or desirable. With regard to wages, tho Court had mado the wages of drivers tlio same as those fixed for drivers generally by the last Drivers' Award, with a-spccial provision for tho caso of a driver driving one horso only but attending to that horse and a "change horso" in addition. Tho wages of assistants had been loft tlio samo as .they wero under tho last atvard. Tho evidence established that employers wero not treating theso as standard wages, but in most cases wero paying more than tho minimum fixed by tho award. In connection with tho question of wages, it wa£ worthy of now that in tho demands mado by tlio uniom in 1906, when the grocery business was certainly moro prosperous than it was now, tho union did not aslc for any increase in tho existing wages. Mr. M'Cullough, the workers' representative, did not concur in tho award bo far as it related to assistants' wages. Flo thought that their wages should not bo less than those of drivers.