BASIC WAGE REDUCED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 852, 21 December 1929, Page 11

BASIC WAGE REDUCED

COMMISSION’S PRESIDENT DISSENTS SOME SCATHING REMARKS SYDNEY, Friday. The Full Bench of the Industrial Commission, sitting at Sydney today, declared the living wage in New South Wales for a man and his wife and one child at £4 2s 6d a week, and for an adult female employee at £2 4s 6d. Mr. A. B. Piddington, president of the commission, dissented, and in the course of scathing remarks upon the conditions under which the commission was forced to act, he likened the

f Mr. A. B. Piddington, president of the commission, dissented, and in the course of scathing remarks upon the conditions under which the commission was forced to act, he likened the commission to a computing machine. The old rate for an adult family consisting of a man, his wife, and two children was £4 ss, so that the new basic wage represents a drop of 2s 6d. It covers a man, his wife,'and only one child. The New South Wales Government intends to revise the child endowment plan, so that employees under State awards shall pay 6d a week toward a fund to which the Government will add a subsidy. When the Legislative Assembly met today, Mr. J. T. Lang, Leader of the Opposition, demanded that the Government should suspend the basic wage declaration. His motion for the suspension of the declaration was defeated by 44 votes to 32.