WAGES OF SEAMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 August 1922, Page 4

WAGES OF SEAMEN.

QUESTION OF DAILY RATEi r DISPUTE BEFORE THE COURT. By Telegraph.—Press Association. 1 Wellington, August 28. In the Arbitration Court to-day, in reference to the new award sought by shipowners in respect to conditions and the pay of seamen and firemen, Mr. Scott, the employers’ representative, pointed out that the daily wage generally carried a higher rate than the monthly wage, because in the former cases it was really no work no pay, and a man could be put off from day to day. Mr. Young: But with this difference, that the seamen are under a contract through the articles of agreement. Mr. Scott: It is a question whether the court could fix the daily wage. Mr. Young: There is nothing I know of to stop the court. Mr. Justice Frazer said they must not lose sight of this if daily rates were fixed. The ordinary principle was that better daily rates were fixed than monthly rates. As Mr. Scott had pointed out, under ordinary circumstances the monthly rate was something less because of the fact that the monthly wage meant payment for holidays, etc., whereas on a daily wage, if there was no work there was no pay for that day. For that reason the daily rate was always fixed at a higher standard than the monthly rate. A monthly rate, at a 30-day month, seemed to meet the wishes of all parties, and seemed to him the simplest way of settling that point, and it would avoid any complications.