REDUCED MARGIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26635, 4 December 1947, Page 4

REDUCED MARGIN

SKILLED WORKERS’ PAY COMPARISON WITH OTHER RATES Industrial Correspondent WELLINGTON, Dec. 3. The wage margin between skilled and unskilled workers has been considerably reduced from its former level by successive pronouncements of the Court of Arbitration, until now workers in skilled ti-ades are entering protests. The Wellington branch of the New Zealand Engineering Workers' Union at its annual conference at Palmerston North has decided to give its full support to a claim to be made by the national executive of the union in the Court of Arbitration for a restoration of a greater margin for skilled workers. “As the engineering industry has developed, the margin of pay for skilled compared with unskilled workers has been correspondingly reduced,” said the Wellington branch; of the union in a statement. “ This has had the dangerous consequence that there is now little incentive for young men to acquire skill, and industry as a whole must suffer from lack of key men. “The percentage margin in 1919 was 25.6 per cent, above the unskilled rate, and in 1945 it had dwindled to 15.8 per cent. It. has still further decreased with the recent pronouncement of the court. . “We realise that if industry is to advance in this country the requirements for skilled labour must be met. The only way of filling this need is to make the wage paid for skilled work sufficiently attractive. Men who have acquired skill are to-day doing unskilled work because of a lesser degree of responsibility and the almost imperceptible difference in award ra “The need for margins for skilled work." the union concludes. " will be detailed in the metal trades award claims to be heard by the Court of Arbitration.”