CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1918, Page 2

CONCILIATION COUNCIL.

HOTEL EMPLOYEES' DISPUTE. A sitting of the Conciliation Council was opened at New Plymouth on Monday, to hear a dispute between the Auckland Hotel and Restaurant Employees' Union (Taranaki branch) and. the employers in the Taranaki district. The Commissioner (Mr. T. Harle Giles) presided, and the assessors were, for the employers: Messrs. J. 'H. PagTii, W. P. Kirkwood and E. Whittle, and for the union, Messrs. A. Jackson, P. Walsh and D. McCarthy. . . The commissioner, in opening the proceedings, said the application of the union was for a new award to supersede the one already in existence. The clauses varied considerably from the old award in that the union was asking for increased wages and improved conditions. There were certain factors which made it within the bounds of possibility that' a settlement would be arrived at in the dispute, in as much as during the past few days the council had come to an amicable agreement with regard to the restaurants, and to some extent, at any rate, the two disputes were similar. In reply to the commissioner the assessors on both sides intimated that they had full power to act. Mr. Whittle complained that the notice received by the employers had no'.' been sufficient to enable them to .meet' ii to discuss the union's claims Taranaki, as the commissioner knew, was a wide and extended district, and he thought they should have been given sufficient notice to get into touch with hotelkeepers in the outer districts. It was suggested that the council ridjourn for a short period in order to give the assessors for t':e employers an opportunity to confer, but it was ultimately decided to proceed, and the council then went into committee.