FREEZING WORKERS 19 TO 21 YEARS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 37, 7 November 1942, Page 6

FREEZING WORKERS 19 TO 21 YEARS

Wage Variation Refused

By a majority decision, the Court of Arbitration has refused an application by the New Zealand Freezing Workers Union the purpose of which was to gi<’ freezing industry workers between Hie ages of 19 and 21 years the full 5 per cent, wage increase granted by General Order in March this year. The application was made ou the grounds that youths between the ages mentioned were, under the Freezing Workers’ Award, paid the same rates as men over 21, but the provisions of Hie general order restricted the amount on which the increase was lo bo paid in the case of workers under 21 to the first £1 10/- of their wage. It was urged that in these special circumstances the junior workers should receive the u per cent, increase on the first £5 of their wage, so that the margin between their wage and that of the men over 21 would be abolThe majority decision of the Court points out that the powers vested in it under the Wages Emergency Regulations, under which the general order was nuu.e, must in most cases necessarily result m numerous variations of existing wage margins. ... Mr. Monteith’s dissenting opinion states that the workers between 19 and 21 have not retained their relative I'osiHon to other workers doing the same work. The unfairness of thio was recognized in the last war, and should be again.