FLAXMILL WORKERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 816, 19 March 1910, Page 3

FLAXMILL WORKERS.

NEW AWARD

SUMMARY OF THE CONDITIONS.

An arbitration award was filed yesterday with Mr A. Stubbs, clerk of awards, setting out the conditions of employment to operate between the Manawatu F'laxmills’ Employees’ Union of Workers and 39 employers at Waikanae, Bulls, Oroua Bridge, Foxton, Koputaroa, Moutoa, Napier, Ohakune, Manakau, Kairanga, Shannon, Tokomaru, Rongotea, Makerua, Wairoa, Levin, Linton, and Waverley. The award will operate from April 1, 1910, until March 31, 1913.

The principal terras of the award are as follow : Hours of labour; The week’s work shall not exceed 48 hours, exclusive of time necessarily occupied in getting up steam for the machinery and in attendance on horses. Each employer shall be entitled to arrange the hours of work according to the exigencies of his particular business, and the hours may be worked in day or night shifts, but, in any event, work shall cease not later than 1 p.m. on Saturday. These provisions shall not apply to cooks or their assistants.

Overtime: Any time worked in the week beyond these hours shall be paid for at the rate of time and a quarter Jor the first ten hours, and Ihe.eafter at the rate of time and a half. When overtime work is rendered necessary by reason of breakdowns of the machinery, causing stoppage of work, only ordinary rates shall be paid. Holidays : The following shall he recognised holidays New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Labour Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. Work done on Christmas Day, Good Friday, or Sundays, shall be paid for at the rate of double time, and work on other holidays shall be paid for at the rate of time and a half, provided that with regard to paddockers and fibre carters, the rates shall be For the first four hours, time and a quarter, and thereafter time and a half. Drivers shall not be entitled to be paid for attendance on horses on Sundays or holidays.

Wages:—The minimum rates of pay shall be as follow ; —Feeders, is 3d per hour ; head paddockers, is 1 }4 d per hour ; bench loaders, is id per hour ; washers (finding their own boots and aprons), is id per hour ; catchers, assistant paddockers, sorters, aud shakers, is per hour; rouseabouts, iof/sd per hour; drivers, one or more horses, £2 6s per week. No deduction shall be made from drivers’ weekly wages for any other cause than for lime lost through the workers’ default. The stripperkeeper shall receive not less than as 6d per day, in addition to the wages paid to him in his principal capacity, whether as feeder, engine driver, or manager. The minimum rate for piecework paddocking (which means all work from taking the fibre off the poles and stacking it in the scutching shed) shall be, from April 1 to September 30 inclusive, 23s 6d per ton ; from October 1 to March 31, 20s per ton. When carting is done, 5s per ton shall be added. The minimum rate of pay for scutching shall be £1 6s per ton ; scales to be provided by the employer. The rate for cutting flax aud the wages of cooks and their assistants shall be settled by agreement. Labour not otherwise specified in the award shall be paid for at the rate of is per hour. Employment of Youths : Youths shall be paid the following minimum;—From 16 to 17 years of age, 15s per week ; 17 to iS, ; 18 to 19, £1 5s ; 19 to 20, £1 10s ; 20 to 21, £1 15s. Board of Workers : Where food is supplied by the employer workers shall not be charged more than 15s per week for their board. Smoking: Workers shall not smoke cigars or cigarettes in the swamp, and shall not smoke at all when handling or in proximity to dry fibre. If desired, employers shall allow workers ten minutes in the forenoon and afternoon for smoking, deducting pay for the time off. Workers shall use pipecaps, if supplied by the employers.

Under-rate Workers and Preference, etc. ; The award makes provision for under-rate workers and for preference to unionists. Except as regards flax-cutting, firewood-cutting, tramming, tramlaying, paddficking, and scutching, no piecework shall be allowed, but employers may have all or any part of their work done by contract. Milling may be worked on pierce work, at rates to be mutually agreed on. Native workers at the Waverley flaxmill, worked by James Gordon Rutherford, and the Wairoa mill, worked by Michael J. Burke, shall be exempt from the award. In the event of new machinery being introduced or new processes of manufacture adopted, the rates of pay for any altered work shall be arranged by mutual agreement, failing which the matter shall be referred to the Arbitration Court.

A memorandum wqs added by the judge \Mv Justice Sim) that the union had asked for an increase in the Mages fixed by the last award, and the employers asked for a reduction. After hearing the parties, the Court directed them to hold a conference, with a view to agreeing on a sliding scale of wages, to be regulated by the market price of flax. No scale had been agreed upon, but, on some other points, the parties had agreed, and the a, ward was based for the most part on the agreement of the parties.