WAGES IN ABATTOIRS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 229, 16 December 1927, Page 9

WAGES IN ABATTOIRS

TECHNICAL ARGUMENT INCREASE ASKED FOR Having listened almost all morning to the technicalities of slaughtering being disputed in the Arbitration Court, Mr. Justice Frazer at length had to protest that the parties might have threshed out the questions much more exhaustively in conciliation. So he directed a conference. The dispute involved wages and conditions in the abattoir section of the Slaughtermen’s Union. Mr. Sill, for the union, asked for increases which were approximately 10 per cent, all round above the old rates. Air. S. E. Wright, for the employers, asked for a reduction from £ 2 a hundred to 35s a hundred in the mutton rates, and a similar reductions in lamb, pork, and cattle rates. REASONS FOR INCREASE Air. Sill held that the court had agreed on a ratio between the slaughtermen in the export and the home trade. The rates in the export had been altered in accordance with the court’s basic wage, and an increase was needed in the home trade to maintain the relative wages indicated in previous agreements. He submitted that as many- of the men were employed by the Auckland City Council, they should get one penny an hour more in accordance with the court’s practice. He did not press that point owing to the competition in the trade, but asked for £4 5s as a reasonable minimum. A considerable question was the abolition of the ‘long shank cut.” The union asked very definitely that the dangerous and awkward cut should be abolished. The union’s witnesses were not agreeable to forego the rate if the ‘‘long shank” were cut out Witnesses for the employers led the court into a morass of technicalities. Mr. Scott suggested that the parties should hold a conference. His Honour agreed that the question of wages was getting involved with technicalities, and asked both sides to take the remainder of the morning to try and settle some of the clauses in dispute among themselves. (Proceeding.)