SHEARERS’ DISPUTE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 192, 10 May 1921, Page 9

SHEARERS’ DISPUTE

A HEARING TO-DAY. A sitting of the Conciliation Council will be held before the Commissioner (Mr. W. Newton) this morning to hear the dispute filed by the Wellington Shearers and Shed Hands’ Union. The union is asking for a 44-hour week, and pay for shearers at tho rate of 355.- per 190. For pressers, a weekly wage, of £5 is claimed, or, by the hour, 2s. Gd.; and, for all other shed hands the union is demanding £4 ss. per week, or 2s. 3d- per hour. Cooks, it is asked, shall be paid £5 10s. per week, and cooks’ assistants, £5 weekly. Counter-proposals have been lodged by the employers, who offer shearers £1 per 100, and a week of 48 hours and twenty minutes. Tho rate of pay proposed for pressers is half that demanded by the union, and £2 per week is offered all other shed hands. The eraplovers suggest that the wage for cooks shall be not less than £3 per week. The assessors at the Conciliation Council will be:—For the union: Mevm-s. A. Cook, C. Grayndler, and 0, Snow; for tho employers, Messrs. W. II- Nicholson, Hugh Morrison, and Cecil Prime. Before the Conciliation Council in Canterbury last week, shearers demanded 355. per 100, and the employers offered £l. No agreement was reached, and the dispute was referred to the Arbitration Court.