WIDE DIVERGENCE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 193, 1 September 1937, Page 7

WIDE DIVERGENCE

-Presa Association.)

^ t Work£r§, and EmpIqyers, Claiina for Printing Induatry CONCILIATION HEARING

rBy Telegranh-

WELLINGTON, Last Night. j ' A substantial difference between tho demands of the workers and the wages offered by the employers in the printing trades was commented on by the Commissioner, Mr M. J. Reardon, during the hearing in Conciliation Oouncil today of an industrial dispute between the New Zealand Printing and Eelated Trades Industrial Association of Workers, the applicants, and tho New Zealand Master Printers* Industrial Association of Employers and tlie New Zealand Federated Newspaper Proprietors' Industrial Association of Employers, the respondonts. Mr Eeardon said he did not know which party had strayed from the existing award, but there appeared to be a wide divergence between the parties. Mr K. Baxter, agent for tho workers, said there was ample justification for improvement of the conditions by the employers, on the ground of improved prices for primary commodities overseas. As a result of failure to achieve a 40-hour week a year ago, the workers Jin the printing trades had been thrown 'out of their relative position with the employees in other industries. Mr E. W. Olarkson, employers ' agent, -said definite evidence was now availjable that the rcduction of hours, the lincrpase in wages and the simultaneous advance in the cost of materials, supplies and services, due in a large measure to external circumstances, had seriously embarrassed the industry. Briefly, any increase in turnover attributabl© to general expansion of commercial activity had been offset largely, and in many cases entirely, by the increase in wagqs aIone. TEe discussion of claims and counterclaims was coxifined to the typographical sec^on. Workers' Proposals The workers asked that paymc«t; for work be either by time or by piecework, with the following minimum weekly rates of pay: — Linotype aud all other machine compositors aud linotypo and monotype mechanics, £6 ls; stonehands, bulk-hands and machine correctors, £5 12s 9d; secpnd stone-hand, £5 Ss 3d; general hands in the linotype mechanics' department with less than three years experience, £4 9s; with three .or more years experience, £4 19s; junior linotype mechanics to be paid at the rates prescribed in the printing trades apprenticeship orders in their respective ".industrial districts; night workers to receive a minimum of £1 a week abpve the Tates, and juniors lQs ia week. The wages asked by the workers for probationers was £4 13s 6d a week, with the right to promotion when nblp to qualify as an olficient operator. A 40-lIour week W^s asked for day and 3S-hour week for night workers, iand overtime at. the rate of time and afialf for the first 'three hours and doublp '.time thereafter. Tyro weeks holiday jon full pay, on the completion of each.i year of service, was asked for; also that all annual holidays be taken before the!end of the six months followine the' date on which they. fell due. Employers' Uounterclaims. in 'their counterclaims the employers | sougbt to have cities (and within aj radius of ten miles) and towns with a :population of more than 6000 placed in class 1 apd towns with a population of 6000 and under in Class 2. The weekly "wages offered for machine work were as .follows:— -Linotype, intertype and linograph ^operators and linotype mechanics, Qlass 1, £5 10s; Class 2, £5 5s; monotype operators, Class 1, £5 7s; Class '2, £5 2s; monoline and other composing machines, Class 1, £5 2s 6d; Clasa 2, £4 15s; general hands in the linotype, mechanics' department, with less tlmu' three years experience, £4 ls; with three .or more years experience, £4 4s. T|e 'wages offered for probationers on lingjtype or other composing machines were! |£4 5s a week or 2s 6d an hour. Thq' j hours of work offertd were 42 per week1 •for typographical workers, except thosei ;in the linotype mechanics' department, jwhere the hours offered were 44 for day (workers and 42 for night workers. In ithe case of workers in Class 1 employed' jfor 44 hours the employers asked that Ithe weekly whge be paid for 42 hours, ,and that any portion of the remaining .two h°urs actually worked in any week jbe paid for at an hourly rate computed ;by diyiding the weekly wage by 42. , jSimilariy in the case of Class 1 workers j employed for 42 hours the employers asked that the wages be paid for 41 hours, with an additional payment for any portion of the remaining hour actually worked, computed on an hourly basis by dividing the weekly wage by 43. Several clauses in both the claims and the counterclaims were dealt with. For pieeework on machines the rates agked by the workers •varied from Jd to ld for 4ifterent types above the rates offerefi by the employers, Preliminary consideratiou was given throughout the day to the question of hours and overtime, and an agreement was rcached on a nuniber of min°r points. Tjie council adjourned till to-morrow; jnorning. _ _ ' - 1