CLOTHING TRADE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 348, 8 May 1928, Page 16

CLOTHING TRADE

NEW AWARDS FILED CONDITIONS UNALTERED Three new industrial awards affecting the clothing trade have been formulated by the Arbitration Court, which is sitting in Auckland. In each case the conditions have been assessed on the lines of the existing awards. The awards affected by the dispute were the Dressmakers and Milliners, the Shirt, "White and Silk "Workers and the Clothing Trades employees. Demands were presented seeking a five-day week and increased wages, as well as an annual holiday of two weeks on full pay. In addition, head cutters and pressers who were trusted with responsible administrative duties were held to be deserving of a 10s increase in wages. General advances were asked for in the wages of all classes of cutters, pressers and trimmers. The contention of the employers was that the trade was not in a flourishing condition, and that increases in production prices would rob the manufacturers of what small chance they had of competing with imported goods. The court, by a majority decision, framed the new awards, upon existing conditions, Mr. A. L. Monteith, the workers’ representative on the Bench, contending in each case that the wages should have been increased —particularly in the case of male workers, where affected by the award. The request of Miss Cossly, secretary of the Tailoresses’ Union, that a joint committee be appointed in each factory to adjudicate upon questions affecting the employees and their working conditions, was not referred to in the judgment of the court.