COUNTRY WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2706, 28 February 1916, Page 8

COUNTRY WORKERS

AN INDUSTRIAL AGREEMENT. Til© first industrial agreement entered into by the newly-organised Agricultural and Pastoral Workers' Union has just been completed. It applies to the Wellington butter and choose factory companies and the creamery, butter, and cheese factory employees of tho district. Tho principal points in the agreement arc as follow: — Hours of work: In butter factories 60 hours per week of seven days, exclusive of meal hours, from October I to March 31; 50 hours per week from April 1 to September 30. In creameries the hours shall bo arranged between each employer and tho workers. In cheese factories the hours shall not exceed 70 per week of seven days. Creamery manager, not less than £2 30s. per week, with ono month's holiday on full pay. Butter factories: Ist assistant, £3 os.; 2nd, £3; 3rd, £2 Ins.; casuals, £2 10s.; enginedriver, £3 os. Where only two workers are employed besides tho manager, the wages shall be: Ist, £3; 2nd, £2 155.; 3rd, £2 10s. In cheese factories where there is only one worker other than the manager the wages shall be, 1 *8 lfi&.vi

2nd, £2 10s.; where three, Ist, £2 17s. 6d.; 2nd, £2 los.; 3rd, £2 10s.; where four,j Ist, £3; where five, Ist., £3 2b. : 6d. Holidays: Every worker in a butter factory who shall have worked not less than eight months in the same year for the same employer shall be entitled to four weeks' holiday on full pay and a proportionate holiday if he has worked less than eight months, but not less than three. This holiday shall not be granted if the workers receive one day off each week, and only 14 days shall be allowed if they have a half-day off each week. Cheese factories working three vats or less shall be deemed to be small factories, and shall be exempt from granting a weekly half-holiday, but in such factorios tho workers shall be entitled to four weeks' holiday on full pay at tho conclusion of the season, or 14 days •if they receive tha weekly half-holiday. General provisions: No employee sliair.be dismissed except for just and reasonable cause, and the manager shall be the arbitrator on this point. A bathroom for tho use of the workers shall be providod at all butter and cheese factories, accommodation to be free and approved by the Health Department. The office of the New Zealand Agricultural and Pastoral Workers' Union shall be the employment bureau at which a register of all members of the union shall be kept. The agreement is to come into operation on' March 1, and continue in force until September 30, 1918.