The Bonus Cut.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 May 1922, Page 3

The Bonus Cut.

j fBY TELEGRAPH PER PRESS ASSOCIATION] slaughtermen protest. CHRISTCHURCH, May 10. Mr Ellis, Secretary of the Canterbury Freezing Workers’ Union, stated I to-day that the freezing workers intended to appeal against the Arbitration Court’s reduction of os in the bonus. This appeal was in accordance with the right given them by the Arbitration Amendment Act of last session on the ground of special circumstances and placej them on a different footing from other trades. These “special circumstances were : —(a) That the present freezing season was a short one and that the earnings of the average worker therein would be below normal; (b) That the worker in the industry lmd not had the benefit of the Court’s stabilisation scheme, inasmuch as their wages had been reduced by tlie Award of the Court in December last. WAGE CUTS. DETAILS OF THE ORDER. AUCKLAND, , May 10. The order amending the awards and Industrial Agreement, now in force in the Dominion, in the terms of the decision of May 8, to reduce the cost of living bonus lias been made by the Arbitration Court. The order provides that all time rates of remuneration, whether payable as basic wages only, or as basic wages with bonus, or bonuses with the exception of those excluded by the court, shall he reduced as follows : Adult male workers : —l’er month ! £1 Is Gd; per week os; per day 10d;j per hour, 4}d. j ■Adult female workers;—per month. 10s ICW; per week 2s Gd; per day oil; j per hour pi. j Juniors—per month 6s Gd; per week I Is Gd ; per day 3d; per hour ]d. The workers employed in theatres i and other places of entertainment who are paid at performance rates are reduced Gd per performance. All piecework (inclusive of bonuses) for purpose of calculating the earnings of ' workers, hut the earnings of each wor- i ker shall be reducable in respect of the I time actually worked by him or her j in e ach week, by an amount calculated j at the rate of 5s per week in the case j of males, and 2s Gd per week in the j ease of females. j

The foregoing provisions shall not. operate in respect of the following awards and industrial agreements: Green Island coal mines award; Kaitungata coal mines award; Waronui and Truta coal mines award, Nightcaps and Wairuio Wairaki Districts coal mines award, Shag J’oint coni mines award, Scotland coal mines award; Northern Industrial District coal mines award; Point Elizabeth and Liverpool State coal miners Industrial agreement, .Mount Torlesse coal mines industrial agreement, Inangaliua gold mines industrial agreement; Northern Industrial District (except Gisborne Judicial District) aerated water and cordial factories employees award, New Zealand Seamen’s and Firemen’s industrial agreement.

In the memorandum, the Court stated it has specifically excluded from its operation a number of awards and industrial agreements, tile provisions of which indicate that a special mode of adjustment had been agreed on by t u parties or ordered by the Court. The Court proposes to file a number of orders for partial exclusion, which will cover cases in which just bonuses have been withheld, wholly or in part. Applications from several unions in respect of other awards and industrial, agreements have been considered, but the Court has decided not to deal with these ex-parte. The unions concerned may make formal application for exclusion hut the Court desires to point out that the fact that award rates in .some trades are higher in one district than in another is not a ground for making an order for exclusion!) in regard to the latter district. Any anomaly will be considered when a new award liecoines due.

In the case of a worker at hourly rates, hut whose conditions of work are special, and who. regularly earn extra money, such as tramway employees, the Court lias on more than one occasion, held that the so-called “Gisborne Pronouncement” doe« not apply.