AWARD AMENDED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26619, 15 November 1947, Page 8

AWARD AMENDED

SOUTH ISLAND TIMBER WORKERS % RETROSPECTIVE INCREASE Special to Daily Times GREYMOUTH, Nov. 14. Timber workers throughout the Westland, Nelson and Marlborough district are to receive an increase in pay of 10s a week and the extra payment will be made retrospective to October 1, the date on which the general pay increase came into operation. This is the outcome of an amendment to the award made this week by the Court of Arbitration. The increase thus maintains the margin of timber workers’ wages and brings the workers of the district into line with the North Island men who were granted a special wage increase of 10s last week.

Dissatisfaction at the granting of an extra 10s to the North Island workers while no similar announcement was made with respect to sawmill workers in this district has been general during the past week and branches have carried resolutions of protest at the delay'. Timber .workers throughout New Zealand have been on a wage rate 10s higher than the general rate as a reward for production achievements, and when the Arbitration Court recently granted an all-round increase of 10s a week the New Zealand and Westland. Nelson and Marlborough Unions lodged applications for another increase of 10s in order to retain their margin above the standard rates. The decision of the Court in respect of the North Island mill workers recognised this position and, as expected, therewas a parallel increase for the West Coast workers.

Following the Arbitration Court’s amendment an immediate application for permission to increase the price of timber will be made. The chairman of the West Coast Sawmillers’ Association, Mr A. L. McKay, stated it was impossible for millers on the present margin to absorb the increase in wages and as soon as details of the award had been received and the increased cost to the industry computed, application would be made for a rise in the price of timber. Quite apart from the new award a purvey of the industry throughout the Dominion is at present being undertaken by the Sawmillers’ Federation with the object of submitting facts and figures to the Price Investigation Tribunal in support, of an application for a revision of the approved prices for timber in both islands.