SHOP ASSISTANTS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 305, 20 September 1919, Page 3

SHOP ASSISTANTS

AWARD FILED MINIMUM WAGES FOR FEMALES INCREASED —__. / The Arbitration Court aware! in respect to the. Amalgamated Society of Shop Assistants in the boot, hardware, stationary, fancy goods, furniture and soft goods trades has been filed. For tho purpose of tho award every person is deemed to be a shop assistant who is engaged in any capacity in connection with the reception, display, sale or delivery of goods, or orders for goods in or for the rotoil .establishments of those, employers who are bound by tho award. Shop assistants are, olassiued as follow: Apprentices, juniors, seniors (males or females), travellers, storemen, and paokere. Assistants, sixteen years of age and under, entering the trade without previous experience are to be paid not less than '15s. for females and 20s. for males, during the first year of service; second year, 20s. and 275. 6d.j third year, 255. and 355.; fourth year, 30s. and 555.; fifth year, 353. and 605.; and thereatter£2. and ,£3 15s. An assistant entering the trade without previous' experience, from the age of 17 to 18 years, shall bo treated as. having entered upon his or her second year of service and shall be paid accordingly, and so on for those entering at 18 to 19 years of age and over. The wages of storemen and packers are fixed as follow: If in oharge of two or more men other than casuals, ,£3 15s. per week; other storemen and packers, £3 55.; juniors under 17 years of age,.' M; 17 to 18 years, £V 53,; 18 to 19 years, M lOsi; 19 to 20 years, ,£1 155.; 20 to 21 years, .£2; and thereafter the minimum wage." In addition 6toremen and packers are to receive a bonus of ss. per week, and junior 6toremen_and packers 10 per cent. .'The "storemen or packers - employed by • the Wellington wholesale do not come under this award. Casual hands: Senior male assistants must be paid not loss than Is. lOd, per hour and female assistants Is. 2d.; all other casuals to receive 25 per cent, in addition to the rate of wages provided. An assistant 6hall be deemed to be a casual, hand when employed less than one month, that is, 2i days, Sundays not included. Any feiualo who is employed wholly or substantially in a dress, Manchester, drapery-furnishing, men s and juvenile clothing, mercery, piece-silks, .velveteens, carpets, linoleums, beddings cotton dross goods, prints, furniture builders' ironmongery, ■ and men's coot departments, shall be paid one-half moro than tho wages specified for females. Tho holidays are Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and the, day following New Tear's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anniversary Day, r Labour Day, the birthday of the reigning SoveiViign, and Peace Celebration Day. Any work done on Sundays, Christmas Day,-or Good Friday,must bo 'paid for at double rates, and all work.done on any of tho other specified holidays at time and a, half, the said payments to be in addition to the ordinary weekly wage. Except in the case of Easter Saturday, and the Saturday preoeding Christmas Day, the usual statutory halfholidays must bo observed irrespective of any other holiday obseryed during the week. A -week's holiday on full pay is to bo granted eaoh worker on completion of each- year of service. The number of apprentices or juniors in any shop shall not exceed one apprentice or junior to one senior. Employees leaving or being discharged must, on request, be furnished with a reference in writing stating the position held and length of service. Provision is made for underrate workers, travelling time, and preference.

Court's Memorandum. The Court in a memorandum attached to the awaird saye:— "This award covers shop, assistants-in a variety of trades, and is not limited as formerly to soft goods assistants. "The Court, after ihearing ■ ovidence in Wellington and other centres, lias, after careful consideration, fixed live years7as_: the poriod a .worker 'must, as a rule,'have'served in the' respeotlve trades in order to become entitled to the minimum wage for the fully qualified assistant. The Court has also inoreased the minimum rate for femalo workers after having completed five years of service. "The Court has not dealt with the hours of work, but hue left these, as hitherto, to be .regulated by the Shops aud Offices Act. The Court, however, is in sympathy with the' request made by tho workers that tho dosing hour for shops shall be not later than 5.30 p.m., which also meets with tho approval of u number of employers, but the Court is of opinion that this question is one which should be dealt with by the .Legislature in the amending Act which is now under consideration. It appears to the Court that the Act should either fix the dosing hour.for all specified 6hops, irrespective of whether or not workers are employed therein, or should extend the powers of the Court so as to enable it not only to fix the hours of work for workers employed in the shops covered by the award, but also to fix the hours of olosing of such shops. "With.regard to overtime, the Court has also left that to be regulated by the' Shops and Offices Act. . The ' provision, howover, in that Act that no overtime should be paid to shop assistants whose wages exceed .£2OO appears, in the present condition of things, to be unfair and unreasonable, and should, in the opinion of the Court, be amended. Tho Court has no power to mako an award contrary to the express provisions of a Statute, otherwise it would have provided that the above-mentioned limit of .£2OO should be increased to ,£3OO. "The 6cope of the award is the whole of the Wellington industrial district, but the Court has struck out of the list of parties all employers other than those carrying on business in the city of Wellington and its suburbs. The Court on a previous occasion,.for reasons which it gave at length, refused to-join country employers, and those Teasons still hold good. If, at any thus, the condition wltii regard to workers in the country should, during the currency of the award, so alter as to make it proper that such country employers, or any portion of them, should be made parties to the award, application for' that .purpose, based upon subh altered conditions, can be made to the Court at any time." The award operates from September 21), 1919, until February 24, 1921.