AWARD DEFIED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 568, 22 January 1929, Page 9

AWARD DEFIED

TIMBER EMPLOYEES WORK OWN HOURS TROUBLE IN MELBOURNE (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) MELBOURNE, Monday. The first definite move to defy Mr. Justice Lukin’s award of a 48-hour week in the timber industry was made to-day. Three thousand employees from various mills ignored the 7.30 a.m. whistle and began work at 8 a.m. They took an hour off for lunch instead of three-quarters of an hour, and stopped work at 5 p.m., the usual time. The men intend to work four hours on Saturday mornings, making 44 for the week, instead of 48. The employers’ counter-movement will be to pay the men pro rata on the basis of a 48-hour week. This means that if they work only 44 hours the remainder will be deducted from their pay. The Lord Mayor of Melbourne and Sir Arthur Duckham, of England, are trying to bring the parties together before the trouble spreads. TOWNS IN DARKNESS? POWER STRIKE THREAT (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) SYDNEY, Monday. Five men recently were dismissed from the Port Kembla power-house. A strike is now threatened if the men are not reinstated. This action would result in the whole of the towns on the south coast being plunged into darkness at night. The men say the dismissals were over a trivial matter following upon a practical joke, but the power-house authorities take the opposite view.