UNDERRATE PAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1403, 1 April 1912, Page 4

UNDERRATE PAY.

AGED WORKER FORCED INTO BENEVOLENT HOME. In nearly every award of the ArbitrH* lion Court, or nt least in a great number of them, there is u provision for giving lower pay fo workers who may not bo up to (he level of competence, or who, through a physical defect or old ago, may not bo able to do what is considered a- lair day's work. Under the awards mentioned these man may be employed at "muler-rate pay." under an, agreement between (lie employer, employee, and the union secretary. To instance how the unions resent this clause, a delegate to the Ironmasters' Conference, held at Christehurch last week, related that he had had a moulder in his employ, nn hon-<<-t old man. who had reached the "sere and yellow leal'" of life, and yet while too slow to keep pace with an ordinarily Rood moulder, was still able to make himsoli' useful, and was happy in doing so. This man he had employed on tinder-rate pay terms, until not so Ion? ago, when Hie secretary of the union objected. As th« old man was a good way from being worth the ruling rale of wage for good men, ho had reluctantly to dismiss him. That man was now in the Benevolent Home, "as miserable as a bandicoot," and a charge on the country. It had been no humiliation for him to accept a lower rate of pay than others knowing his incapacity to work up to their standard, but his humiliation was profound when he was driven to accept charity by the arbitral , ! , action of a union secretary.