LABOR DISPUTES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 220, 11 January 1911, Page 3

LABOR DISPUTES

THE CONCILIATION' COURT. By Telegraph.—Press Association, i Hastings, Yesterday. The Conciliation Court is sitting here to-day considering the demands of (he Hawke's Bay Frecwrs' industrial Union of Workers. Mr. I'. 1 [alley is presiding, and the assessors are Messrs. 11. (I. Warren (Nelson Bros.), (!. R. (.'roll' (Borthwick and Sons), and Norman White (North British) for the employers, 'and Messrs. W. Stockholm, E. O'Malley, and Thomas Merson for the employees. The following proposals were submitted by the employers: —(1) Ordinary hours of work not to exceed eight hours, and overtime to be paid at the rate of time and a quarter; (2) in departments where the employers can so arrange work shall cease at 1 p.m. on Saturdays; the men in these depart-, meats may work eight and a half hours five days a week; (3) starting time shall be regulated to meet the require- | ments of employers; (4) men working in shifts shall be paid ordinary rates; no longer period than five hours to be worked between meals, except in cases of finishing or o;i Saturdays, when an extra thirty minutes will be allowed. The Court is still sitting. The press is not admitted, but the ' result will be given.

Later. After considerable discussion, ar. amicable arrangement was reached, and a schedule of hours and wages was drawn up for signature by the. parties concerned. CARPENTERS' HOURS. NO WORK OX SATURDAY.

Wellington, Yesterday. The Carpenters' Union is making "application for a new award, and has asked that the dispute be heard by a council of conciliation.' A week of 40 hours is asked for, all work to be conlined to Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. In the event of any man being needed to work on Saturday the union asks that he receive double pay. The ordinary wage rate of Is 8d per hour is demanded. Among other tilings, the-union seeks to make it obligatory upon employers to supply hot water for the mid-day meal. Complete compulsory preference to unionists is a feature of the demands. Under the suggested provision, employers will be made responsible for seeing that all men employed are union members. The union also objects to all previous exemptions, and asks that piecework be abolished.

THE DEMAND FOR WORKERS." "There is absolutely no reason why one able-bodied man should be out of work in New Zealand just now." This was the opinion of a high official of the Labor Department as 'expressed to a Times reporter to-day. The prospects of employment all round, he said, still remain exceptionally good, though the demand is keenest for tradesmen and laborers. There is a strong demand for laborers in Wellington Province, and from Canterbury there is an urgent call for grass-seeders, who can obtain as much as Is !)d per hour. Comparatively few men who are now applying to the Department for work are either farm hands or laborers, and hardly any tradesmen have, come along seeking assistance, the position, indeed, being such that employers have practically given up trying to get men skilled in the use or tools. The onrcials of the Department comment upon it as an interesting circumstance that this year they nave nad remarkably few applications from men who came to town for the holidays, spent all their money, and then found themselves stranded. The number has been much fewer than on previous holiday occasions. A few years ago it was not unusual to have as many as .s.Aty such men calling at the Wellington office within a week, men who were absolutely penniless, and yet who coming into town confessed to having had plenty of money.

COOKS' AXD WAITERS' DISPUTE. Failure having attended the efforts made to adjust satisfactorily the industrial dispute between the Wellington Cooks ai.d Waiters' Union and the employers, r.i-il'cation will be filed with the Clerk of Awaids by the union to have the dispute heard by a council of conciliation. The union, which is citing twelve oyster-saloon keepers, twentytwo restuarant-keepers, twentj'-nine luncheon and tea-room proprietors, and fifteen private hotelkeepers in Wellington, has nominated Messrs. C. Marshall, A. Telfer, and E. J. Carey as its assessors. Generally the union is seeking increased wages, especially for the lower-paid men, and reduced hours all round. For male employees a week of sixty hours is asked, with a fifty-two hour week for females. A half-holiday on alternate Sundays, in addition to the satautory half-holiday, is also soueut. Advances sought for the lower-paid workers range, from 2s (id to 5s per week. Board and lodging or an equivalent payment is asked for in the case of private hotel employees, and there is a demand ior board or payment in other cases.

THE MINERS' UNIONS. Auckland. Yesterday. Mr. Semple, ex-president of the Miners' Union, says rumors of a big eoalminers' strike are absolutely without foundation. The cancellation of the union's registration is designed to prevent, not to cause, trouble. After the Blackball strike, the parties appeared before the court, and an award was made which proved very unsatisfactory to the miners. It was hinted by the Judge that this nward would be the basis for all awards to follow. Had this been done, no power on earth could have averted a strike. To obviate any possibility of an extension of the operations of the award, general cancellation

-ad been decided on. Since then an entirely satisfactory agreement had been reached at V.uller. Nothing was further from the miners' -minds than a general strike. The federation was brought into existence to prevent striKes, and to prevent war—by being ready for it.

THE ENGINEERS DISPUTE. Wellington, Tuesday. The Arbitration Court award in the engineers' dispute in Wellington district provides that a week's work be 47 hours and the minimum wage Is 4y a per hour. Conditional preference to unionists is granted.