WRONG PRINCIPLE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 274, 14 July 1932, Page 3

WRONG PRINCIPLE

CHIEF JUSTICE CRITICISES H.IGH WAGES FOR YOUTHS. SYDNEY, June 30. The policy of paying high wages to youths was criticised in the Federal Arbitration Court hy Chief Judge Dethridge. A witness was giving evidence in support of the A.W.U. claim for equal pay for young men and adults doing equivalent work in the shearing sheds when the judge interposed. "That gets us to the question whether -we haven't overpaid our minors in this country, and whether that has not h'ad deplorable results." Youth had to be paid reasonahle wages, he said, hut it was a vhious thing to pay ajyouth of 18 the same wage as an adult, with family responsibilities. Resons'ibility. Mr. Grayndler (A.W.U.) : Excepting that, to do otherwise, means th'e displacement of adults. The Judge: "Uhis witness has said that boys can "pick up" quicker than men, so, in effect, your argument is that adults should he put on although it is admitted that boys are better A boy, however hig, he said, had not the same responsibilities as an adult. ![f the employment of adults were insisted upon (because of equal wages), it would mean that a lot of boys would he left at a loose end. Therefore a middle course had to he adopted. ' , Mr. Grayndler: Th'e employment _,f boys under 21 at lower wages means that the man over 21 has to walk the bush.