WAGES FOR MINERS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 March 1922, Page 5

WAGES FOR MINERS

EFFECT OF NEW AGREEMEiNj: BIG REDUCTION IN PAY. Sr Teleer.ph—Pre.. AMOd.tlon, Invercargill, Last Night. An important case to mining interests was decided by Mr. G. Crnkkshank, S.M., to-day, when a miner sued the Nightcaps Coal Company to recover the difference between £8 Ils. being wages due for 84 days' work at a mini- * mum wage of 18s a day, and £5 3* sd, the amount earned at the tonnage rate paid tfor coal. The case was a test one under the new award, by which a considerable reduction has been made in the earnings of miners. The magistrate said the difference in output and earnings of men under the old agreement and the new award was very striking. Plaintiff, Wore Christmas, averaged 3% tons of coal hewn, and made a daily wage of £1 l«s. Now his average output was 2$ tons, and his ! average wage 13s lOd per day. Gen-| erally each miner was sending out one ton less per day and earning less than half his former wages. No one could say 13s was a fair wage for a conscientious miner. The award fix'ed the wage at 18s a * day when men were on piece work. ' Clause 25 of the award compelled the • company to make the men’s earnings up : to 18s a day when working on the ton- 1 nage rate, but if a man, through no fault of his own, was unable to earn . 18s per shift, the company had refused! to make up the extra payment, alleging that the meu, being dissatisfied with the award, were going slow. The oaus was on the company to provide that. Plaintiff seemed to His Worship to be 1 a fine type of miner with long export- 1 ence in Wales • and America. If the; company considered the miner was sot' earning an average of 18s at tonnagerates, through malingering or limiting' his output it should dismiss him. The ' award tonnage rates were ao low that i to his mind a miner could not earn the minimum wage. The company had failed to convince him that the man’s fail-j ure to earn 18s was through any fault of his own, and judgment must be for the amount claimed with costa.