DAIRY INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 33, 7 August 1936, Page 10

DAIRY INDUSTRY

HOURS OF WORK

CASE AGAINST FORTY

COST ANALYSED

Hours of work in the dairying industry were disputed in the Arbitration Court today, two applications being heard. The factory employees applied for amendments to their awards to provide for a 40-hour week, and the employers applied for the retention of the present hours. The grounds for the employers' application were that the dairy industry must occupy a 7-day week, that the hours could not be restricted because of natural processes that could not be hurried without loss of quality, and that the industry could not bear the cost of a 40-hour week.

The application for a 40-hour week was made on behalf of the workers by Mr. J. Roberts. Mr. T. O. Bishop appeared for the employers, and both parties brought a large number of witnesses to support their claims.

Mr; Bishop referred to the magnitude of the dairy industry and its importance to the Dominion. He put in tables showing the export of butter and cheese during the decade 1925. to 1935. In 1925 butter realised approximately 164s per cwt. but from then onwards there was a steady fall in the price, with the exception of 1928, and during the depression the price was exceptionally low. In an endeavour to maintain the value of their product the producers almost doubled the output, by 1935. The position of the cheese market was similar but the increase in quantity exported had not been nearly so great.

In 1934-35 the number of persons engaged in the industry was 3509 males and 278 females, a total of 3787. The male employees received £738,841, or an average wage of £210, and the females £25,799. or an average of £92. He did not think salaries were included, Mr. Bishop said. Mr. Roberts:. Oh, yes. Mr. Bishop, after referring to his notes, said that salaries were included. AVERAGE PAYOUT. There were 70,938 suppliers during the year in question, Mr. Bishop said, and the average payout was £211, or approximately the average payments to male. employees. The lowest rate of wages paid for males was £3 13s. Assuming an average, working year of 44 weeks —in some factories all of the workers were kept on right through the year—the total wage of the lowest paid man would be. £160 12s. Under the provisions of the Factories Act the I weekly rate would become £4 Is. Eight statutory holidays and Sundays would have to be paid for at double time, and Saturday afternoon work would have to be paid at time and a half. The £4 Is had formerly been a wage for seven days, but it would now I be for six days, and that would mean an increase of 48 per cent. If the 40----aour week were applied another day per week would have to .be paid for, and the increase on the 1931 rate would be 69 per cent. - ■ .■ SMAIX FACTORIES. In small factories the 40-hour week could not be applied. Where three men worked a factory the overtime that would have to be worked would prevent the factory continuing as an economic business. The overtime necessary would mean an increase of 85 per cent. The percentages quoted applied to the wages bill for males would increase the £738,841 by £354,643 under the provisions of the Factories Act alone; by £509^800under the 40-hour week, and by £.628,014 if overtime had to be paid in the smaller factories.

■ The question of hours in the dairy industry had always presented a difficulty as it was a seven-day week industry. The industry was one that depended on natural laws, and the days of work could not be reduced. Long hours were also inevitable in the industry because the making of cheese depended on bacteriological processes which required time for development, and any hastening impaired ■ the quality. In the case of butter there were not the same delays due to chemical processes, but there were economic units of machinery and the quantity of raw material varied during the season. It was not possible to adapt the factory to the flush of the season, and consequently the working hours had to be increased.

Mr. Bishop submitted that less than a six-day week was impracticable in the industry, and that after serious consideration Parliament had' gone as far as it was intended to go when a six-day week was fixed.

Mr. Bishop called Mr. W. Y. Kirkman, superintendent of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Hamilton, who gave evidence on the points outlined.

(Proceeding.)