DOMINION AWARD FOR LABOURERS SOUGHT

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 150, 21 March 1939, Page 11

DOMINION AWARD FOR LABOURERS SOUGHT

Claim For Higher Wages

“NO JUSTIFICATION FOR SNEERS AT NAVVY”

“Too long have we been, the economic fulcrum and we are tired of it. We submit we are entitled to a definite place in society,, and that our wages should be based on the services we give,” said Mr. P. M. Butler, advocate for the workers, in the Court of Arbitration yesterday, in asking that builders’ labourers and general labourers should be freed from the position of being accepted as the lowest-paid workers, with their rates being the base from which all other wages were computed. Weekly wages were sought by Mr. Butler as against an hourly basis at present. The dispute is being taken in conjunction with carpenters and joiners and plumbers, five'days having been set aside for the hearing. Wages, classification and suburban and country work were the major matters in dispute. Mr. W. J. Mountjoy is appearing for the employers. The work of the labourer was of importance to the country, said Mr. Butler. “There is distinct skill and knowledge required for the efficient manipulation of a shovel, and furthermore, each job requires a different application of this simple tool. There is no justification for sneers at the -shovel or the ‘navvy.’ Both have given us, in all parts of the world, good roads, railways an'd other essential services. Their worth has not been fully recognized, and we ask that these workers be given an adequate wage.” Uniform Conditions Sought.

It was the first occasion on which a Dominion award had been sought for builders’ and general labourers, said Mr. Butler. It would mean that the new award would replace 11 separate awards, and should lea'd to beneficial results by establishing uniformity in award conditions.

In the past labourers had always been under the handicap that their rates of pay were looked on as the base, said Mr. Butler, who quoted memorandums of the Court referring to them as the “basic rate.” and “the repercussions that would follow in almost every trade if the basic rates’ were increased.” It was not till the basic wage pronouncement was made in 1936 that labourers had been set free from the misery and burden of bearing the “base rate,” with its consequent general implications.

In 1937 the Court made its standard rate pronouncement for .skilled, semiskilled and unskilled workers, but it had never stated that the rates applied to any particular class of workers. Mr. Butler made it clear that the rate now prevailing for labourers, 2/4 an hour, which was also the standard rate for unskilled workers, had not been fixed by 'the Court specifically for labourers, but had been agreed upon by the assessors in the conciliation proceedings following the Court’s pronouncement without prejudice to future proceedings.

The standard rate had now taken the place of the basic rate in New Zealand, but the workers wished to make it clear that they had not again embraced the base rate after being set. free from it in the basic wage pronouncement. They now sought proper recognition and freedom from any fear of repercussion in other awards. The Court had not had an opportunity of reviewing labourers' wages since 1926, said Mr. Butler. The industry had developed since then and new methods of procedure had arisen. Mr. Butler summarized his submissions as follows: —

“(1) For years, because of the absence of legislation making provision for a basic wage, our rates were accepted as the basis for all wages. (2) This adversely affected us because our applications could not be considered apart from likely repercussions in otherawards. (3) Even if the Court so desired, our 'applications could not be considered on their merits. (4) This is further borne out by the fact that the Court withheld increases to us from 1925 till 1937. (5) The basic wage pronouncement relieved us of the burden under which we suffered.”

Mr. Butler submitted that as the Court had not actually fixed the rate in tiie labourers’ award, any increase in wages should not make any difference to the standard rate pronouncement, which should still stand as a guide, but with each relevant application standing on its merits. He asked the Court to ignore any attempts to tie labourers up with the lowest base rate. Three Wage Groups.

Three wage rates were sought for labourers, £6 a week for skilled, £5 10/- a week for semi-skilled, and £5 a week for unskilled, said Mr. Butler. The men were grouped as follows:— Skilled 1 : Riggers, paviours and asphalters, scaffolders, machine mixers, puddlers, vibrators, staging workers, blaek and fall men, crane men, jibmen and winchmen, men using mechanical rammers, hammers, drills, borers and breakers, pile-drivers, derrick erectors, cement gun operators, well borers, shot firers, tunnel men, baring down men, timber men, compressor attendants, plasterers’ labourers, steel fabricators, turners and benders.

•Semi-skilled : Auctioneers’ labourers, mosaic labourers, marine store, tar and asphalt works labourers, barrowmen, navvies and pick and shovel men, quarry workers and rock breakers (band). Unskilled: Watchmen, shovellers at shingle pits and sand dumps, lamplighters and sweepers, men cleaning bricks after demolition, advertising labourers. The larger proportion of the operators in the building industry were not direct employers at all,'said Mr. Butler. The cost of any wage increases would, therefore, fall on the principals and not on the individuals. The majority of the labourers were employed in the erection of banks, hotels, blocks of flats, factories and other commercial premises.

Figures published by the Government Statistician showed that for the erection of 500 units of commercial aud other business premises there was utilized £2.254,462 worth of labour and material, whereas 3795 dwellings utilized only £3.033.041 worth of labour and material. The workers engaged in the erection of buildings were entitled to some sense of economic •security. Eleven witnesses were called in support of the case for the appellants. The hearing will be resumed today.