Arbitration Court.

Manawatu Herald, 2 April 1904, Page 3

Arbitration Court.

The award delivered by the Wellington Arbitration Court last week regarding the bakers’ trade brings the conditions ruling the trade into line in all the industrial districts south from Wanganui and Napier down to the Bluff. There may be some slight differences in detail, but a? to such main principles as hours, wages, and apprenticeship, the awards governing the trade are the same for Wellington, Canterbury, Otago and Southland, and the conditions for the country bakers are similar in the area mentioned. Auckland bakers still work fiftyfour hours per week, under agreement between masters and operatives, as against fifty-one hours in the rest of the colony. One great change has been effected by the award so far as the trade in the Wellington industrial district is concerned. Hitherto every operative baker has been entitled to receive thirteen 21b loaves of bread per week from the bakehouse free of charge. The employers in the trade have for some time opposed the continuance of the free-bread custom, which did not prevail in other parts of the colony. As an offset to the abolition of this custom, the Court has reduced the working hours from fifty-four to fifty-one per week. The bread allowance was valued at from 3s to 3s 6d per week. The Court has also brought Wellington into line with the trade in the other parts of the colony with regard to apprenticeship.