PAY IN THE ENGINE ROOM.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1635, 30 December 1912, Page 4

PAY IN THE ENGINE ROOM.

CONFERENCES TO BE HELD. Conferences between representatives o! the Wellington branch of the Shipowners' Federation and the Marine Engineers' Institute have been held in Wellington recently. The conferences have been the outcome of demands • for improved conditions of work, far engineers on vessels in the Dominion* so as to place them on an equal footing with those in tho Commonwealth with whom the local men are affiliated. The local representatives eat for several'days,.but adjourned until after the holidays. It if understood that tho demands made by the institute involve the' questions of overtime, higher pay, and hours.. •It was explained-that it was esfamoted that about 400 \ engineers are affected. Owing to the varying. conditions under which members of the institute were emploved in New Zealand waters, it would bo "impossible to frame a set of conditions applicable to all, so that an endeavour is being made to deal with each case on its merits by holding conferences at convenient centres. ■ , On January G a conference between representatives of the Union Company and the institute will commence at Dunedin. Mr S D. Hanna, secretary of the Auckland branch of the institute, and Mr.-T. R Wallace, of the local branch, leave Wellington next Friday for Dunedin. _ Up to the present the shipowners in Auckland have not received an application from their- employees, but it js thought it is quite possible one woula be forthcoming there before long. It is stated that soveml firms in the Dominion have entered, into an agreement with their engineers, which does not expire until 1914.