SHEARERS' WAGES

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 90, 13 October 1932, Page 12

SHEARERS' WAGES

NEW MINIMUM RATES

DECISION OF UNION

The question of rates of pay far shearers and shed hands for the 1932;----33 season, has received further consideration by the New Zealand Workers' Union National Executive Council^, which has now advised all workers tdi accept engagements at the following,' minimum rates: — * !■ Shearers: 20s per 100 with rations?! 25s per 100 without rations. Shed hands: Pressers, by the week; £2 10s, by the hour Is 6d; all other shed hands, by the week £2 ss, by th© hour Is 4d; cooks, for 12 men or under, £3 per week; cooks' assistants, £2 10s' per week. / Commenting on the exeoutive coun-» cil's decision, Mr. A. Cook, general secretary of the union, said:—"These are the Tates the union is prepared to accept in. an agreement with, the sheepowners, and represent a reduction ofIs per 100 for shearers, 5s a week for weekly workers, and Id per hour for hourly workers below the 1931 award rates, fixed by the Arbitration Court when the position for wool was much more serious than it is to-day. . The rates the union is prepared to accept provide only a bare living."wage, and their reasonableness is recognised by quite 75 per cent, of the sheepowners,- who have already expressed their willingness to pay nothing less than £1 per 100 for shearing." The rates proposed by the sheepowners are 18s per 100 with rations, and an additional payment by agreement between the parties where n» rations are provided. Shed hands' are offered the following Tates: —Presgers, by the week £2, by th© hour Is 2d; all others, by the week £1 15s, by the< hour Is; cooks, £2 10s; assistantcooks, £2. * '