CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1915, Page 8

CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

OAHPENTEBS AND JCBKBRS' DISPUTE. A sitting of he Conciliation Council waa held yeaterd&y morning, Mr. T. Harle Giles, Commissioner, presiding, to hear the dispute between the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and naki employers. The assessors for the employers were Messrs. A. L. (Roberts, P. A, Coleman and Ws F. Brooking, while the union assessors were Messrs. W. J. Girting, G. (Psacoe, and George G. Burgess. The claims of the union included a clause that the minimum rate of wages for competent carpenters and joiners should T)c raised from Is 4Va& to Is 9d per feour, and that a Ml week's work Should consist of 47 hours, as at present. The employers filed counter- proposals that the wages should remain at Is 4% per hour, and also claimed for a 44 hours' week. The Commissioner remarked that the dispute was before the council in July last, but owing to certain irreguraritiee in filing, the union withdrew it and the dispute, with certain amendments, was now before the council. It was satisfactory to know that most of the union's claims were acceptable to the employers. As regards the hours of work, the unioil claimed for a I? hours' week, and the employers counterclaimed for a 44 hours' week. For the whole of New Zealand, 44 hours was the recognised time workers were asked to I work —particularly in skilled trades Taranaki was the only place- in New Zealand without a carpenters and joinI ers' award, and as the awards made in the other centres were uniform, no doubt the Arbitration Court would bring Taranaki into line with the rest of the Dominion, when it sat here to I hear the dispute. It was regrettable I that Taranaki Should be the first to Imake a retrogressive step in asking for 47 hours when 44 was the recognised tiling in other parts of the Dominion. The matter of wages was not a serious | one; what was given throughout the ' Dominion (U 6d) would no doubt foe i given here. The Commissioner dealt with the other matters in dispute, and heard objections to inclusion as parties to the dispute. Mr. C. Ahier (IXenry Brown and Co.) lodged an objection on the ground that his firm was wrongly cited as "Henry Brown, Brown's Mill." —The Commissioner upheld the objection ao.l struck the firm out, the union undertaking to take steps to re-cite the company before the Arbitration Court. The Committee then went into committee, and adjourned at 5 p.m. until this morning.