PAYING OUT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3154, 4 August 1917, Page 8

PAYING OUT

FOR WHARF LABOUR

HOW WELLINGTON WORKS

Up till some three years ago tho payment of tho wages of the waterside labourer was managed uuicli as it is at present in ports other Hum Wellington. That is to say, each company employing wharf Inborn , kopt ■ its own time-sheets and paid its own nieu, which, of course, necessitated each company lumping its own pay staff. Thr'oo years a;;u, j,s the result of a conference and • prevailing conditions, it was suggested that tho companies might pool this feature of their business, and inako one staff responsiblo for ■ the payment of all waterside labour (outside that employed cither casually or permanently by the Wellington Harbour Board). So tho Wellington Waterside Labour Employment Association was established, with Mr. William Bennett as manager. Offices were secured in X Shed, adjoining the men's waiting room. In these offices of a Friday, from 11 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., the army of men of all nationalities, creeds, and colours face the pigeonholes to draw that which is their due. What ono is scarcely prepared to hear is men discussing, not tho Miramar coal strike, but H. G. Wells's latest book, "Mr. Britling Sees it Through," and some of the latest dramatists, notably Brieus, Shaw, Strindberg, and others, to whom tho theatre has only haW oponed its doove. Among the throng are those who havo studied tho law, and found it vain; tho Church, and found it unsatisfying; business, and found it too engrossing; farming, too uncertain; the trades, altogether too steady, and so on. There are those who have attempted too much and fallen down; thero are those who have not attempted enough, and havo become content with what the busy quayside offers their hands. Whatever they aTe or havo been they alt gravitate towards the pay office at lunch-time on Friday to lift the wherewithal 'to keep tho pot boiling. The system under which one office pays out for all the shipping and coal companies concerned is interesting enough to describe, for it is said to be unique, aud probably tho best system that obtains in Australasia. Initially it should be stated that when the system was first inaugurated tho time-books of the companies' representatives need to be handed in to the company, which made up the limes and sent them along to the association's office. Two months 'ago this was altered. All the timebooks ale now handed direct into the association's office, where the, staff prepares a weekly statement (made up to every Wednesday evening) .of tho amount of money each company lias to pay out for labour on each day and each ship. Oil Thursday morning the companies receivo their, statements, and the total amount is forwarded by chequo at onco. That is cashed on Friday morning, and at 11 a.m. the pay-out commences. To simplify this big task—and it 'is a big one, when over 2000 men are often concerned—there are four pay-boxes, arranged alphabetically, so that each man knows which box. to go to. Thero, besides the man who pays out; is a clerk, who looks up tho worker's card—there is a complete card system—which tells exactly how many aours tho man bas worked, ordinary epei overtime, the class of work, and tho total amount lie has earned. As tho money is paid out and tho docket is receipted the ..-'.erk registers the amount on on automatic calculating machine. The paper ribbon that streams out of tno Back of tho machine is a tally of the individual aii'cunts paid, whilst the macliino at f-l!X ir.oment shows the total amount of the payments made. As tho pay clerk is only given the amount of money required for his section of workers, the total diown by the machine and the Tjalanco in hand make a running balance. The system is not infallible. Mistakes may be made—by £ne company s timekeepers or through a littlo miscalculation, but they are very rare indeed, aro soon located, and mistakes aro usually capable of ouick adjustment. Say that a man has been paid £1 too much one week and says nothing about it, it is simply deducted from his next week's wages. If ho does not work again on tho wharf for n month oy six months, it is all the same. Experience has told that once a man has worked any time on the wjiarf, he almost invariably returns to it. The smell of the wharves becomes an alluring nostalgia thero is no resisting. ■ By tho system employed a completo record of tho time worked and wages earned by every man on tile wharf is kept. Week by week the card, headed by tiio man's name and private address (to keep this has been mado compulsory by the Military Service Act), is filled in with every essential particular, and the details are transferred overy six months to record books, which show at a glance the number of weeks any man has worked in the half-year what he has earned, and what his averago earnings weekly have been. A representative of T IIE Do. minion was shown several names of men whose averago earnings on tho wharf havo been over £B a week. Another interesting record shown as an example of the completeness of tho association s records, was one showiii" the average wages for coal and general" cavo workers for the year 1915-16 (basing it on tho men who had worked three-quarters time and over). In tho caso of coal workers the men had worked an aveiwo of 38.G hours a week, and had earned h 15s. 3d. each-. In tho caso of general cargo workers, the timo worked was 37 i !?,"n S I '",' wcclc, and lll ° ilv ™ge earnings i*M 9s. 7d. Tho amoupt of money paid out by the ; association weekly averaged between .C3SOO and JMfIOO. The biggest week on record was tho ono tho wages for which wero paid out on April 3 last. On that day tho wu.ge-shoet totalled X'62GC. llio system is ns popular with tho mon as it is convenient to tho companies. A man knows that if ho cannot got his money on tho .Friday, through some fault of his own, ho can always get it at any other time, and if a man runs a bit short beforo pay day and there is a need for a draw, 'ho can, per favour of Mr. Bennett, niako a draw against money owing to him. In this regard a perfect understanding exists between Mr. Bennett and tho men. Tho manager knows how far ho can go with each individual man, and each man pretty well knows how far ho can go with Mr. Bennett. So that tho system, ovon to mutual obligations, is not hard and fast. It is much more clastic than any other system of wage-paying, and tho men know it and appreciate it.