FEW ALTERATIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 667, 20 May 1929, Page 16

FEW ALTERATIONS

44-HOUR WEEK FOR STONE WORKERS NEW AWARD FILED Auckland- Stonemasons and monumental workers will still have to work 44 hours weekly within specified clock times. Wages will remain practically the same, and the men will have to use pneumatic surfacing machines of 14 inches calibre. This outlines the terms dictated by tho Arbitration Court for the new award. The court has declined to abolish the clock hours system to allow work to be performed during any eight hours in 24 without payment of overtime as sought by the employers, while tho union's demands for a 40-hour week and . that overtime work should not start before the hour at which trams and other vehicles commenced running has also been rejected. Employment of saw tenders on shift work has been cancelled by the court, to be arranged between 6.30 a.m. and 11 p.m. QUESTION OF HEALTH

Increase of Id an hour granted to polishers, whose work is regarded us semi-skilled, and 2d an hour to workers on imported sandstone, are the only changes made in wages in response to the union's demands for an allround increase. The claim was based on the assertion that masons were not paid commonsurately with the rise in the cost of living since 1914, that their health was endangered by the inhalation of stonedust causing silicosis, and that the introduction of pneumatic tools enabled more work to be done. The court justifies rejection of the demands for increased pay by stating that semi-skilled and skilled workers aj*e nearly always paid in excess of award rates.

Inhalation of minute particles of silica dust, inducing chemical action in the lung tissues, is stated by the court to be the cause of masons contracting silicosis. Larger fragments were apparently harmless. It was impossible to determine from the men medically examined in Auckland where they had contracted the disease, as they had worked in other countries, sandstone of a high silica content was worked in New Zealand except certain imported sanstone not used to any extent. Beyond adding 2d an hour to the rate for working imported sandgtons there was no justification for in-

creasing the rates of wages on the score of possible danger to health. On the ground that future stonework in building depended on laboursaving devices, the court declined to consider seriously the demand for prohibiting the use of large calibre pneumatic machines. Only by the adoption of time and money-saving machinery .could the mason’s trade be preserved. W ithout special reference to pneumatic machines provision existing in other district awards was adopted, the additional allowance to granite workers being 3s a week. Disagreement with certain provisions is expressed by Mr. L. J. Schmidt, employers’ representative. Referring to the objections, which in some cases went so far as refusal to work, made by the union to the use of certain machines, he. says: A practical demonstration of the working of the machines in which members of the court participated did not reveal any insurmountable difficulties, while the men operating the machines at the time of inspection appeared quite satisfied with their positions and expressed a desire to continue working the machines. Mr. A. L. Monteith, employees’ representative says: “I absolutely dissent from this decision, for the reason that I cannot lightly brusli aside the very cogent evidence tendered by medical and operative witnesses and the important facts presented The cost of living was 60 per cent, higher than the level of 1914, but monumental masons had been awarded an increase of 46 per cent., and building masons of 50 per cent., a lowering of their respective standards of living. A number of masons had been X-rayed and a medical witness diagnosed in a large percentage of men the presence of silicosis. In England and parts of Australia silicosis was an industrial disease, and the worker received compensation when he was affected.” The Stonemason’s Union proceeded against the contractors for the new railway station in the Magistrate’s Court in December last, claiming that a new machine installed was contrary to the provisions of the award. The court, however, decided against them, and matters were brought to a head by the dismissal of Mr. X Dunlop, president of the union, while other masons engaged in preparing stone were dismissed. The Arbitration Court also upheld the magistrate’s decision, but the men decided not to take up their old positions, and at present only a few men are engaged on the station stonework.