TYPOGRAPHERS’ RATES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1023, 14 July 1930, Page 10

TYPOGRAPHERS’ RATES

COMPUTATION OF PIECEWORK RATES CONFERENCE BEING HELD '“My concern is to give an equal return for an eaual rate of work,” said Mr. Justice Frazer, in the Arbitration Court today, in dealing with an application for amendment of the New Zealand Typographers’ Award. Tho union, which was represented by Mr. C. H. Chapman, asked for the'insertion of the following clause:“That for the purpose of compiling a piecework operator’s output an on quad shall not be wider than half the depth of the type matrices he is setting." . For tho union, Mr. Chapman contended that the award, which the Court was asked to amend, had reduced tho earnings of some pieceworkers by a greater amount than had ever previously been inflicted on any body of workers by the The reductions were so large that they were even more than asked for by the who had asked that computation of outpu* should be based on the actual number of characters in a line of type. The award, as interpreted generally, had given them a computation based on the figure spaces in use which was not true ens, but spaces of widths varying* in different offices. In the union’s opinion, the court meant that the true en should be the basis, and the dictionary definition and custom should govern that. Piecework machine compositors were working under protest in view of the great reduction in their earnings due to the wrong interpretation placed on the award. The union’s main contention was that the award was incomplete unless definite and non-variable units for measurement of output were provided for all sizes of type. CONFERENCE SUGGESTED Mr. G. C. Codlin, for the employers, claimed there was no justification for the reopening of the piecework question, and declared that the employers refused to be a party to the issue. He asserted that the employers had always been ready and willing to meet the employees. The reduction in earnings, lie said, was not anything like what was suggested, and he quoted figures comparing the average returns last year with those under the new system of computation this year. The reduction amounted to 5 per cent., and the time worked was two-thirds of an hour longer. Mr. Codlin suggested that a conference of two representatives of each party, with his Honour as chairman, should be held to endeavour to remove the present little troubles. lie stated that the idea of t'lie workers was to return to the arbitrary system of computation. His Honour stated that the court had power to amend an award without the consent of parties, where an error had been made, but in this case, the award expressed exactly what was intended. The court could not guarantee the results and because the earnings worked out unevenly the court was not justified or enabled to amend the award. The court wanted to get down to a standard basis for setting ali faces of type. He announced that the court was walling to help the parties to settle their differences in conference iri an endeavour to find a better system of computation. A conference is to be held this afternoon.