BAKERY TRADE DISPUTE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2626, 23 November 1915, Page 9

BAKERY TRADE DISPUTE

WAGES INCREASE AGREED ON.

The basis for an agreement was ar- : rived at before the Conciliation Com- ' missioner (Mr. P. Hally) yesterday, in ( the dispute between the Wellington . Bakers' and Pastrycooks' Industrial . Union and the employers. The assessors , for the parties had previously met at Napier, Wanganui, and Palmerston North, but since their last meeting a r recommendation had been arrived at in a dispute heard in' Dunedin. This had some bearing on yesterday's case. The assessors who appeared before the Conciliation Commissioner were: Fortho employers, Messrs. J. Godber and A. Raven, Wellington, and W. Dustin, Wanganui, with Mr. W. A. W. Grenfell as agent for the Automatic Bakeries and other employers, -,and Mr. H. F. Alien, secretary of the Master Bakers' Association; and for 'the union Messrs. L. M. Goodchild, L. Mawhiney, and A. Collins, with Mr. A. H. Cooper as agent. The employers have been desirous of the union accepting the old award, but wero willing to concede an advance in wages, in view of the Dunedin agreement. The employees' demands contained an hours' clause which would have dono away with night baking. The demands wero for a 44-hour week for those employed in machine and a 48-hour week for employees in hand factories, but no work to commence before 8 a.m., except on Saturdays or tho day before a public holiday, when tho hour could bo 7 a.m. If a man was requested 1 to start prior- to those hours he should bo paid double time from 2 -a.m. till the starting time, desired, with the exception that a jour-

neyman required before those hours for dough making could be _ employed at 10s. extra per week. This would have the effect of preventing night baking. The overtime clause read as follows: Subject to the present practice in regard to sponging, if overtime is required to be worked it shall he paid for —timo and a half -up to 9 p.m., mid no work shall bo performed between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m., except in the case of men required to sponge between those hours. Apprenticeship, preference, and holidays were sot out in the demards.' The conference was held in private, but later tho Commissioner announced that a recommendation for an agreement was arrived at on all points in disputo, upon practically similar lines as that- which obtained, iii the old award of tho Court, with the exception that the wages of all hand's had been increased oy os. per week. Provision was also decided on, by which the employers are allowed a little more latitude m the matter of apprentices. Under the old award they weve restricted, without regard to whether the concern was large or small, to two apprentices, hut undor tho new conditions tho number will depend on the number of workmen who are fully employed. In view of tho arrangements raado in other parts ot the Dominion tho men did not press then claims for daylight baking only, Tho recommendation is for an award of threo years, from a-' dato to he adjusted hy tho Court of Arbitration, llio Court will also be requested to gne some special consideration to the of Workers employed in automatic bakeries. "Upon this point no recommen.be iuuuq by the OouueUt