COASTAL MASTERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 458, 13 September 1928, Page 13

COASTAL MASTERS

COURT GRANTS SALARY INCREASE

EMPLOYERS’ PROTEST

In the Northern District Ships’ Masters and Officers Award, filed with the Arbitration Court yesterday, Auckland masters receive an increase of £3 a month on salary, and officers £1 a month.

Mr. G. T. Booth, employers’ assessor in the Arbitration Court, has dissented

from the decision. In a memorandum to the aw&rd, Judge Frazer, president of the Arbit r a t i o n Court, states that when the last award was made in 1925, no increase in wages was granted, because the existing rates maintained the margin previously existing be-

tween the wages of seamen and those of masters and officers. Since then the seamen were, by agreement, granted an increase of 17s 4d a month, and the Wellington coastal companies had granted an increase of £3 a month to masters and £1 to officers. The Court decided by majority to fix a similar increase for Auckland to place the masters and officers of Auckland in the same relative position as the masters and officers of Wellington. MR. BOOTH’S OBJECTIONS

Mr- Booth, in outlining his reasons for dissenting from the decision, stated in a not© to the award that the Court had been influenced in its decision by the increase granted to the Wellington masters and officers. The Auckland shipowners were not represented and had no part in the making of the Wellington, agreement, and reliance upon it as a precedent was not, in his opinion, justified. The masters and officers concerned in the Auckland dispute were no worse off under the expired award than they were in 1925; but on the other hand, the earnings of the principal employing companies had declined substantially and were still declining because of the intensified competition by rail and road.

Many of their vessels were laid up, and those still in the service more than half were earning less than their actual running expenses.