ENGINEERS' UNION CRITICISED

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 75, 22 December 1920, Page 8

ENGINEERS' UNION CRITICISED

"SHOULD NOT HAVE APPROACHED THE

COURT "

RESULT OF APPLICATION FOR

BONUS

Amendments to tho award governing tho wages and conditions of certain branches of engineers in the Wellington industrial district havo been filed in the Arbitration Court. It is specified that tho minimum wage for engineers and other journeymen of tho classes specified below shall be is. on hour. Uxy-uceiyleiie and electric welders, will rccoive Is. an hour extra on tho above rates, and all minimum rates will l>o increased by a bonus of 3Jd. an hour. All apprentices wiii receive a buuus of Is., a week, and an apprentice may, after the term of his indenture, be employed as an improver at not less thim Is, 'ikl., plus 8 4 d. bonud, per hour, for one year alter tue expiration of liis apprenticeship. In a lenguiy memorandum to the award His Honour Mr. Justice Stringer stated' that the representative of tho. union had contended that as engineers in tho district had neither applied, for nor had received the January bonus ut id. an hour, they wero entitled to receive tho lull bonus of 7s. without .reduction, and should be placed on a different looting from other skilled trades, tho."workers in which had received both or either of the January or May bonuses. His Honour said that literally it was true that tho engineers did not apply, to the Court for the bonus referred to and did not receive it. It was quite clear,. lio\\e\cr, that the men received from their employers more than ail equivalent for the bonuses in dispute. ''In July, 191U, said the Judge, "tno Court luiulo an amendment to tho award' existing at that time, fixing tho raw for engineers and journeymen at Is. 7Jd. an hour, with a bonus of g£d. an Jiour, and in due course all engineers and journeymen throughout the Dominion were placed on the sumo footing, If the award mentioned above hud remained in force up to the present timo and tho Wellington, engineers luid received only increases that hud been granted by tho Court, they would at tho present time be in receipt of the following amounts: —Basic wage and bonus as fixed by amending order, Is. 7Jd. au hour, pius iSJd. an 'hour bonus, plus January oonus. of Id., plus May bonus of lid., tho total being' "Is. OJd. an hour. ■ His 'Honour also said that in August of tho ■ present year, the Court inado a new award for the Wellington district engineers, by .which the basic wage or engineers. and journeymen was increased 1 to 2s. an hour with a bonus of 3d. au hour. The award was- made to operate retrospectively as from April (i last. Tha tact that the engineers did not apply for the January bonus was explainable, probably, by the circujnstance that skilled labour was greatly in demand, and as a consequence tho workers wore able to secure rates of pay so high' that it was not necessary to make any, applicatiou to the Court for a bonus.

"If tho argument of the union was sound," added His Honour, "then,' even if the l'atcH conceded by the employers (luring the bonus per:od hod been high —as high .as 3s. an hour—the engineers would still be entitled to the full amount of the present bonus, because they 11111 not jicoil and therefore did not apply to the Court for tho January ami .May bonuses. . . . To argue tnaf. «inployei» who conceded', voluntarily increases in wag<s which more than compensated the workers for the cost of living, and therefore rendered it unnecessary, and indeed improper, for such workers to approacn tlie Court for u cost-of-living bonus should be treated as if they had granted no increase is too absurd' for serious consideration."

The workers' assessor (Mr. J. Jl'Cullough) disagreed with this view.