FARM WORKERS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 52, 1 March 1916, Page 6

FARM WORKERS.

FIRST INDUSTRIAL AGREEMENT,

The recently established Agricultur. al and Pastoral Workers’ Union has just entered into its first agreement, which applies to the butter and cheese factory companies, and the creamery, butter and heese factory employees ■of the Wellington industrial district. The main provisions of the agreement are as under:

Hours of work.—ln butter factories 60 hours per week of seven days, exclusive of meal hours, from October Ist to March 31st; 50 hours per week frcm April Ist to September 30th. In creameries the hours shall be arranged between each employer and the workers. In cheese factories the hours shall not exceed 70 per week of seven days.

Wages.—-Creamery manager, not less than £2 10s per week, with one month’s holiday on full pay;, butter factories: Ist assistant, £3 ss; 2nd, £3; 3rd, £2 15s; casuals, £2 10s; engine-driver, £3 ss. [Where only two .workers are employed besides the manager, the wages shall be: Ist, £3; 2nd, £2 15s; 3rd. £2 10s. In cheese factories where there is only one worker other than the manager the wages shall be, £2 12s 6d; where two, Ist £2 15s; 2nd, £2 10s; where three, Ist, £2 17s 6d; 2nd, £2 15s; 3rd, £2 10s; where four, Ist £3; where five, Ist £3 2s 6d.

Holidays.—Every worker in a butter factory who shall have worked not less than eight months in the same year for the same employer shall be entitled to four weeks’ holiday on full pay and a proportionate holiday if he has worked less than eight months, but not less than three.. This holiday shall not be granted if the workers receive one day off each week, and only 14 days shall be allowed if they have a half-day off each week. Cheese factories working three vats cr less shall be deemed to be small factories, and shall be exempt frcm granting a weekly half-holiday, but in such factories the workers shall be entitled to four weeks’ holiday on full pay at the conclusion of the season, or 14 days’ if they receive the weekly half-holiday.

p. General provisions—No " shall be dismissed except for just ager shall be the arbitrator on this point. A bathroom for. the use of the workers shall be provided at all butter and ch'eese'factories, 'accommodation to be free and approved by the Health Department. The office of the New Zealand Agricultural and Pastoral Workers’ Union shall b e the em-

ployment bureau at which a register of all members of the union shall be kept. The agreement is to come into operation on March Ist, and continue in force until September 30th, 1918.