FLAXMILL HANDS AND EMPLOYERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3751, 14 February 1907, Page 2

FLAXMILL HANDS AND EMPLOYERS.

Conciliation Board’s Recommendations. The recommendations of the Conciliation Board in connection with the above dispute were filed on Monday. It will be remembered that some 60 employers were joined, the recommendations, whchareas follows, affecting about 1200 men, half of whom are members of the Union : HOURS OF LABOUR. 1. Subject to clauses to 2 and 3 hereof, a week's work shall not exceed forty-eight hours. Eight and three-quarter hours shall be worked on each of five working days of the week, and four and a quarter hours on Saturday. Excepting in the case of cooks, cooks’ assistants, and drivers, respecting whom special provisions are elsewhere contained, work shall not commence before 7 a.m., and shall be continued not later than 5.30p.m., but on Saturday work shall cease not later than 12 o’clock noon.

2. Should any employer prefer to work his mill by shifts, not more than eleven shifts shall be worked in any one week —six day shifts, the hours for which shall be those prescribed by the last preceding clause, and five night shifts of nine hours each, provided that in computing the payment for the night shift, the five shifts shall be reckoned as equal to the six day shifts. That is to say, forty-five hours shall constitute a week’s work, and shall be paid for at the rates prescribed hereby for fortyeight hours. 3. The provisions of clause 1 hereof as to the hours between which work is to be carried on, shall have no application to the work of paddocking and carting dry fibre, in respect of which each employer shall have absolute discretion as to when work shall commence or be discontinued. Nor shall the clause have any application to the work of cooks and their assistants. Provided always that, with respect to the classes of labor in this clause referred to, the total number of hours per day or per week, as the case may be, prescribed by clause 1 shall in no case be exceeded without the payment of overtime.

t 4. Subject to the clause last preceding, drivers shall be paid at overtime rates if .they leave the stables before 7 a.m., or arrive thereat after 5.30 p.m., or after noon on Saturday. Notwithstanding anything elsewhere contained, drivers shall attend their horses on Sundays and holidays, OVERTIME.

5. All time worked in excess of the overtime, and shall be paid lor at the rates prescribed for overtime by clause 5 hereof; provided that not more than three hours’ overtime shall be worked on any one day, and no overtime shall be worked on Saturday; provided further that no more than four hours’ overtime shall be worked in any one week on the night shift. HOLIDAYS.

6. The following shall be the recognised holidays : New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Labor Day, the birthday of the reigning Sovereign, ChristmasDaj”, Boxing Day, and Sunday. Work done on any one of these days shall be paid for at the rate ot time and a-half, with the exception of Christmas Day, Good Friday and Sunday, on which days work done shall be paid for at the rate of double time ; provided that with respect to paddockers and fibre carters the rates shall be, for the first four hours, time and a-quarter, and thereafter time and a-half. WAGES AND RATES OF PAY.

7. The following shall be the minimum wages and rates of pay: (a) Feeders, 1 is per day ; benchloaders and catchers, 9s; washer (finding his own boots and apron), 9s; paddockers, sorters and shakers, Bs. Head paddockers shall receive not less than £2 14s per week, and rouseabouts £2 ss, Drivers : Driver of one horse, £2 7s ; driver of two horses £2 xos ; driver of three horses, £2 15s; driver of more than three horses, £3 per week, (b) The employee to whom shall tie assigned the duties of stripper-keeper shall receive not less than 15s per week in addition to the minimum rates hereby prescribed, or in addition to whatever wage he may receive as feeder, engine-driver or manager. In no case shall it be permissible for any employer to reduce the wages of any employee who does the stripper-keeping to an amount below the rates being paid at the date of these recommendations coming into operation, (c) The minimum rates for piecework paddocking (which means, and includes all work from taking the fibre off the poles and stacking the same in the scutching shed) shall be : From the xst of April to the 30th of September, (inclusive) 27s per ton ; from the xst of October to the 31st March (inclusive), 22s per ton. When carting is done, 5s per ton shall be added‘to the foregoing rates, (d) The minimum rates of pay for scutching shall be 28s per ton, and payments shall be made from scutcher’s weights. Scales shall be supplied in the scutching shed, (e) Cooks, where the number of hands, exclusive of the cook himself, does not exceed twenty, shall receive not less than £2 ss’ per. week and found, with 6d per man per week for every additional ten men. Cooks’ assistants shall receive hot less than 20s per week ,and found where the number of hands, exclusive of the assistant him-' self, does not exceed twenty, with 6d per man per week for every „ ten mes* , [f]

Employees engaged in the work of and tram-repairing shall receive not less than 9s per day. Labour not otherwise herein specified shall be paid for at the rate of not less than 8s per day. (g) Casual labour shall be paid for at the rate of time and an eighth, unless and until the casual labourer shall have worked a full week, in which case he shall receive the ordinary rate, (h) Overtime shall be paid for at the rate of time and a quarter, (i) Wages shall be paid weekly or fortnightly, or when an employee shall have been discharged or shall have voluntarily left his employment. Wages shall be paid in cash, and may, at the option ot the employer, be paid either at the mill or at the nearest town wherein a bank is situate. ACCOMMODATION AND SANITATION.

8. Whereas the parties in this dispute have agreed to leave the questions of accommodation and sanitation to be decided by the Board, it is hereby declared that the following provisions shall apply:—(a) In every case where other lodging cannot be obtained, proper sleeping apartments shall be provided, and not less than 300 cubic feet of space shall be allowed for every employee sleeping therein. But nothing herein contained shall oblige any employer to provide blankets or bedding. (b) The walls of all sleeping apartments shall be lined with boards, and shall be lime-washed at least once in every six months. The floor shall be close-boarded, and shall be washed out once in every week with hot water, (c) A substantial fireplace shall be provided for every sleeping apartment. A ceiling shall in no case be required, but if iron roofing is used, the same shall be placed over inch boards nailed closely together,, (d) No window shall be immoveable, but provided for every sleeping apartment shall be on hinges or otherwise adapted for ventilation purposes. One window shall, as nearly as may be practicable, be in line with the entrance, to the intent that when both entrance and window are open there shall be a continuous draught of air through the building, 9. All cooking, dining, and store-rooms shall be used for their proper purposes exclusively. In no case shall they be connected with the sleeping apartments re* ferred to in the clause last preceding, and if any employee shall sleep on premises of which the • cooking, dining, or store-room form part, his room shall be partitioned off, and shall be used for sleeping purposes only. 10. Employees who board on 7 the employer’s premises shall be charged not more than 16s per week.

11. No privy, stable, or other objectionable building or other place shall be situated nearer the sleeping apartments, dining, cook, ing or store-room than 66 feet. PROVISIONS AS TO SMOKING. 12. (a) Except with the consent of the employer or of his agent, the smoking of cigars or cigarettes in the swamp is hereby absolutely prohibited, (b) No smoking shall, be allowed when handling or working in proximity to dry fibre, (c) If “smoko ’’ is desired by the employees at least ten minutes shall be allowed for the purpose in the forenoon and ten in the afternoon, but always in the employees’ time. Pipe caps must be used if provided by the employer, (d) The employer shall have the right to fix the place for smoking, and smokeing shall be allowed at such place, only. The time shall, subject to the last-preceding paragraph, be fixed by mutual arrangement.

UNDER-RATE WORKMEN. 13 Any man who considers himself unable to earn the minimum wages hereinbefore prescribed may obtain permission to work for a reduced wage. Application for permission to work at such wage shall be made by the workman or by his proposed employer to the secretary of the.union, and if the application shall have been refused, application may then be made to the Stipendiary Magistrate having jurisdiction in that part ot the Industrial District in which the case shall have arisen. In every such case notice, either verbal or in writing, shall be given by the applicant to the secretary of the union. If the secretary shall not have replied to the application first made to him within seven days, he shall be deemed to have refused, and application may then be made to the Stipendiary Magistrate as if the secretary had actually refused the application.

PREFERENCE, ETC. 14. In engaging workmen, employers shall give preference to members of the union, but always subject to the following conditions: [a] That the rules of tbe union shall permit any man to join the union who is a competent workman, upon payment of an entrance ' fee not exceeding ss, and of sub-, sequent contributions, whether x payable weekly or otherwise, not exceeding 6d per week, upon the application in writing of the per- ■ son desiring to join the union, without ballot or other election. (b) That it shall be the duty of any employer requiring men to communicate with the secretary of the union- (c) That it shall be the duty of the secretary of the union to promptly answer any enquiry made for men by an employer, and should he fail to answer any such enquiry within twenty-four hours from the tithe of receiving the same, the employer shall be at liberty to employ anyone, whether a member of the union or hot. 15 Unless and until the rules of ’

the -union shall, have been, if necessary, altered in conformity with the clause last preceding, employers may employ anyone,, whether a member of the union or not; but no employer shall discriminate against members of the union, and no employer shall in the employment or discharge of any person, or in the conduct of his business, do anything for the purpose of injuring the union, whether directly or indirectly. 16 When members of the union and non-members are employed together, there shall be no distinction between them, and both shall work together in harmony, and, shall receive equal pay for euqal work. GENERAL PROVISIONS. , 17 Except as regards cooking, flax-cutting, firewood cutting, tramming, tram-laying, paddockihg, and scutching, no piece-work shall be allowed.

, 18 The cutting rate for flax Shall, as heretofore, be decided by, mutual agreement; but if agreement cannot be arrived at, the dispute shall be referred to a committee consisting of one representative chosen, by the cutters, one chosen by the employer, and a third chosen by both representatives. The committee’s decision Shall be final. Work shall not be Stopped pending a decision of the committee, but the rate fixed shall apply to work done after the commefleement of the dispute. Similar provisions shall apply in .the case of tramming, save and except that a person chosen by the trammers shall take the place on the cbmmittee of the representative chosen by the cutters. This shall not, however, prevent the same person being chosen by trammers and cutters.

19. When trams have been laid it shall not be obligatory on cuttefs to place their flax on the tfams. Should flax lay in the Iftatnp longer than three days, an average per bundle of cutters’ pre vlous weights shall be taken, and payment shall be made accordingly. This provision shall apply if it be fbtind impossible to get the flax otit of the swamp. 20 Cutters shall not be required to carry flax a distance exceeding one chain and half without reasonable extra payment. 21 Scutchers shall be provided with bands. Stripper-keepers shall be permitted to repair the scotching apparatus whenever repairs are required. 22 Scutchers shall not be obliged to keep the M tow-hole ” clear of tow. As far as possible, the “ tow-hole” shall be cleaned during meal times or during “smoko.” 23 If employees shall have attended to work the mill, and it is not intended to work, unless they shall have previously received notice, they shall be entitled to and shall receive two hours’pay. 24 The words “ per day ”in these recommendations, when used With reference to the rate of wages, shffll be construed to mean “per shift,” if the circumstances require such a meaning.

25 Nothing in these recommendations contained shall apply to the members of an employer’s family, should they be engaged about his mill. 26 These recommendations shall v ‘ come into and be in force as from the i 2th day of March, 190/, and shall remain in force until the 12th day of March, 1909, and thereafter shall continue until superseded by another award or industrial agreement. * P. J. O’REGAN, Chairman. February! 1 th, 1907.