LOWER SHEARING RATES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 745, 19 August 1929, Page 10

LOWER SHEARING RATES

SLIDING SCALE OPERATIVE Shearing rates will be slightly lower this season, according to the schedule recently released by the Sheepowners’ Federation. The reduction is announced as a result of the sliding scale .agreed upon last year, and accepted as an award. It was agreed then that shearing rates should be fixed according to the prices for wool the previous season. The index figure for the wool values in 1927-28 was 1,800, and the shearing rates were set down at 30s a hundred for the 1928-29 shearing period. It was provided that a rise or fall of 50 points in the index number would mean an increase or decrease of sixpence a hundred in the amount paid to shearers. The index number fixed for last season's wool values was 1,700. with the result that 29s a hundred is the rate for shearers during the coming period, with corresponding decreases in the wages paid to other hands.

Pressers are to receive £3 14s 6d a week, or 2s ltd an hour, as against £3 l«s bd a week, or 2s 2d an hour, last season. All other shed hards are to receive a:3 9s 6d a week, or Is lljd an hour, the wages for 1928-29 b *ing £3 12s 6d a week, or 2s id an hour. The earnings ot youths over 16 years and under 18 have not been reduced at all. and their rates remain at £2 12s 6d a week, or Is Sd an hour. Cooks have also participated in the decrease, and for 12 men or under they will now be paid £4 4s 6d a week, against £4 7s 6d last season; while tor more than 12 m< ij the rates will be by agreement, but with a minimum of £4 4s 6d a week, the minimum fixed for last year being £4 "s 6d. These rates w’ill be adhered to strictly in the Hawke’s Bay and Wellington districts, but in the Auckland Province, where most of the clips are s mall, special rates are often paid.