LOWER WAGES

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1922, Page 5

LOWER WAGES

ORDER OF THE COURT, AMENDING THE AWARDS DETAILS OF PROCEEDINGS By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. An order amending the awards and industrial agreements now in force in the Dominion, in the terms of ite decision of May 8 to reduce the coat of living bonus, has been made by the Arbitration Court. The order provides that all time rates of -remuneration, whether payable as baaic wages only, or as basic wages with a bonus or bonuses, with the exception of thooe excluded by the court, shall be as follows: Adult male workers, £1 Is fid per month, 5s per week, 10d per day, Hd per hour; adult female worker*, 10s lOd per month; t>s fid per week; 6d per day, 3d per hour; juniors, 6a fid per month, Is fid per week, 3d per day, per hour. Workers employed in theatres and other places of entertainment who axa paid at performance rates, will be CMH ducted fid per performance. All piecework (inclusive of bonmea, if any), shall continue in force for the purpose of calculating the earnings of workers, but the earnings of each worker shall be reducible in respect of the time actually worked by him or her in each week by an amount calculated aA the rate of 5s per week in the case of males and 2s 6d per week in the <3M> of females.

The foregoing provisions shall not erate in respect of the foOo<iag awards and industrial agreements:—* Green Island coal mines award; Kaitangata coal mines award. Waronuti and Taratu coal mines award, Nightcaps and Wairino and Wairaki district* award, Shag Point coal mines award, Scotland coal mines award, Northern industrial district coal mines awards Port Elizabeth and Liverpool State coal mines industrial agreement, Mount Terlesse coal mines industrial agreement., Mangahua gold mines industrial agreement, Northern industrial district cept the Gisborne judicial distrust), aerated water and cordial factories employees’ award, New Zealand senmaaaS and firemen’s industrial agreement. In the memorandum the Court states it has specifically excluded from its operation a number of awards industrial agreements, the- provisions of which, indicate that a special mode of adjustment had been agreed on by the parties or ordered by the Court. Ths Court proposes to file a number of or- | ders for partial exclusion, which wffl 1 cover cases in which just bonuses bass been withheld, wholly, or in part. Ap- ! plications from several unions in nr spect of other awards and industrial .agreements have been considered, but the Court has decided not to deal with these ex' parte. The unions concerned may make formal application for exclusion, but the Court desires to point out that the fact that the award rates in some trades are higher in one district than in another is not a ground i for making an order for exclusion. Any anomaly will be considered when the new award becomes due. In the case of workers paid at hourly rates, but whose conditions of work are special, and who regularly earn extra money, such as tramway employees, the Court has on more than one occasion held that the so-called Gisborne pronouncement does not ap* ply.

FREEZING WORKERS OBJECT. PROTEST AT REDUCTION Christchurch, Last Night. Mr. Ellis, secretary of the Canterbury Freezing Workers’ Union, stated today that the freezing workers intended to appeal against the Arbitration Court’s reduction of five shillings in the bonus. Thia appeal was in accordance with the right given them by the Arbitration Amendment Act of last session, on the ground that special circumstances placed them on a different footing from other trades. These special circumstances were: (a) That the present freezing season was a short one, and that the earnings of the average worker therein would be below normal; (b) that the workers in the industry had not had the benefit of the course stabilisation scheme, inasmuch as th«r wages had been reduced by an award of court in December last. OBJECTIONS TO DECISION) Dunedin, May 10. The Dunedin employers agree that thd bonus cut is too small and will be ineffective because not warranting a decrease in selling price. The upshot is likely to be a decreased number of hands, and certainly the taking of 5s per week off th® men’s wages without an equivalent increase in purchasing power for the money. Th® employers reckoned on at least an Ils cut. The workers’ representative states tbati Labor disagrees with the decision, because the court states that the cost of living ia 67 per cent, greater than in 1914 and th® general wage increase is only 54 to 56 peß cent. The decision seems prejudiced by the P. and T. cut. This representative

averred that political influence seemed ta influence the decision.