Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 796, 17 October 1929, Page 6

Trades and the Workers

By

“ARBITER.”

The employers and the workers in | the glass-manufacturing industry will meet on Monday morning next at 10.30 j at Auckland for the purpose of dis- j cussing a new agreement under the j Labour Disputes Investigation Act. Application is to be made in Christ- j church shortly for a Dominion award j for the biscuit and confectionery | workers. Mr. J. Purtell, of Auckland, I will represent the men and will leave j for the South next week. Our Labour Legislation In Christchurch next week there will be a conference of all brickworkers’ unions in New Zealand with a view to the formation of a federation, and also to consider the position about the recent Auckland Brickworkers’ Award, which has caused a heated controversy between the employers’ and the workers’ representatives. The dispute appears to be one of law, based, according to the men’s advocate, upon the fact that certain Statutory laws, such as the Factories Ac’t and the Shops and Offices Act, govern the hours which might be worked by individuals in factories. Unless there is special exemption for this industry, in the schedule of the Bill, it is a breach of Statutory law, he says, to work longer hours than prescribed by the Act unless 1 overtime is paid. Whatever the originators of the legislation had in mind in these particular respects, it is undoubted that Mr. Veiteh’s promise of an overhaul of our Labour legislation is quite timely. Some of the Acts are shockingly drawn, and are so conflicting in their essentials that confused interpretations are unavoidable on occasions. Difficulties of J ob-getting* Under the promise of the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, a great many men are being sent to the country to employment which must be only temporary. Some of them are on forestry operations, and it is stated that shortly 5,000 of the workless will he given jobs. Over 600 refused the jobs offered them. It is understandable in some instances that , men are unable to take jobs in the country, because it is found by them to be worse than taking what they can pick up in the city, having to keep two homes going and exist upon the wages of relief workers. On the other hand, it is the obligation of the men to take the country jobs if there is a possibility of them making enough to keep themselves in sustenance while the depression lasts. One aspect of the position which should not be overlooked in an impartial study of the situation is revealed at Frankton, where the hands at the State sawmill. numbering roughly round about 30, have been given notice of dismissal and offered jobs as casual labourers at Otahuhu — providing that they register at the Labour Bureau. The offered are Is 10d an hour, which is id an hour cheaper than 1 the absolute minimum under the timber workers' award. Skilled men are being offered Is lid, in place of the award rate of 2s 3d an hour. IS IT A CATCH? The ppint is this, however: If the men have to register at the Labour Bureau when it is already decided where they are to be transferred, is it not artificially boosting up of the unemployment figures so that the Government may be able to say: ‘ We have secured work for so many?” It looks uncommonly like it. There is still the awful fear in the minds of the workers that as soon as the session ends there will be a. widespread sacking match, for the relief work cannot last for very long. Where then is the permanent work to be secured It is true that the position in some of the trades has improved appreciably during the past few weeks. This is due partly to a general improvement in trade, and . partly to the fact that a great many casual unemployed men who were doing spasmodic work in trades that did not belong to them have now been shifted to the country, making genuine openings for tradesmen. The whole position is one of rapid oscillation, however. Big jobs absorbing 30, 40 or 50 carpenters, for example, are right while they last, and just when the union believes that the corner is turning at last, they are thrown on the market, and again the job-seeking cycle begins. * * * Apprentices Efforts to straighten out some of the apprenticeship questions were made on Monday of this week,' when a conference commenced by the Trades and Labour Council was held for the purpose of affixing some of the more obvious problems. It was decided to ask unions to adopt several policy points. Workers representatives shall agree, it was asked, to flip technical training of apprentices only on condition that ultimately such training shall be in the daytime and during working hours and that employers shall pay the fechool fees, with the right to deduct such fees from the wages of an apprentice if he does not make the necessary attendances at the school. A united effort to prevent any deduction from the wages of an apprentice except for time lost through his own default, was urged. The proportion of apprentices to journeymen in all trades should not exceed one apprentice to each three journeymen employed, the conference thought. There are difficulties in all trades just now over the apprenticeship quota, on account of journeymen having been dismissed and apprentices compulsorily retained. Until trade returns to normal, the quota cannot possiblj r be acceded to; but the workers can at least see that no new apprentices are taken on until normality returns.