THE GROCERY TRADE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 178, 23 April 1920, Page 8

THE GROCERY TRADE

NEW AWARD WANTED. An application for a new award has bee: filed by .the Wellington Retail Grocers Assistants' Union, and the dis-puto-rwill be heard by tho Conciliation Commissioner (Mr. W. Newton) on Monday, May 3. . Tho union is asking that the hours of work shall be fixed .at <M per week, as follow: From 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., five days in each week; and from 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. on Saturdays. Any time worked in excess of these hours shall bo deemed overtimo and shall be paid for at the'rate of timo and a half for the first two hours and double time thereafter. Under the present award the term of apprenticeship ;'s seven years—from 15 to 22—but it is now asked that the period shall. be five years, in order to bring

the grocery trade into line with tho , conditions that obtain in the' various v other shop trades. The existing scnlo of wages for shop assistants is £3 16s. Gd. per week, including wnr bonus, but the union desires that assistants 1C years of age and under entering tho trade, without previous experience shall bo paid the following weekly rates: Eirßt year of service, £1 10s.; second 'year, ,C 2; third year, .£2 12s. fid.: fourth year, £3 7s. Gd.; fifth year, ,£4 2s. Gd.; thereafter, £&. The employment shall bo on a weekly basis and no deduction shall bo made from the week's wages for public holidays.. No youth under tho age of 18 shall be employed in driving, and the proportion of boys or youths shall lx> ono to every three men or fract : nn thereof. The following shall bo the recognised holidays: New Year's Day, the day following, Anniversary Day, Good' Friday, Easrcv S-ttmlny. ' ]wstor Monday, Labour Day, Sovereign's birthday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Ankic Day, and Peace Bay. No work shall bo done on these hoKdnys, except stable work,(which shall bo paid for at double time rates on Sundays.and nil othor holidays. An. annual holiday of twelvo days'on'full pay is asked for. The union does not desire tho award to apply to clerks, cash boys, or other / persons engaged in tho office work of'the employer, and not engaged in the work of the shop, or to females employed solely in confectionery departments, but it stipulates that every .person shall ho deemed to be a, grocer's assistant who is engaged in any capacity in connection with tho sale and display of goods, mnk-ing-up of orders, stocks, packing, dispatching, storemen, canvassers, and drivers, or in any capacity in connection with the retail grnce'ry trnde. • The assessors for the union at- the hearing of the dispute will be Messrs. R. Mortensen, H. E. Whitt and R. M'Keen.