SEAMEN’S WAGES.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 October 1922, Page 5

SEAMEN’S WAGES.

ARBITRATION COURT’S AWARD. CONDITIONS RE-DRAFTED. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The Arbitration Court issued its new award in the seamen’s dispute thia afternoon. The Court said that nearly all the clauses of the award were in dispute. The working conditions pro vided by the agreement of 1920 were in many eases productive of results that could not have been seriously contemplated at the time it wag formed, and the Court wag satisfied that the ab normally high earnings of seamen in certain trades were due to the operation of these conditions, rather than to the rates of wages and overtime fixed by the agreement. The Court had re-drafted most of the conditions on what appeared to be reasonable and fair lines. The question of wages had caused the Court some difficulty. The 1920 agreement con. tained a provision that any increases awarded in Australia should automatically apply to rates fixed by the New Zealand agreement. The Court, however, decided to ignore the Australian rates and the cost-of-lh’ing variation, because the method of computing and adjusting the cost of living conducted in the Commonwealth differed from ours, and the cost of living in New Zealand did not vary in constant ratio with the cost of living in Australia. Further, the Court’s attitude was to provide a scale of wages for New Zealand seamen whose families lived in New Zealand and not in Australia. The rates of wages decided on by the Court were based on the rates agreed upon in 1920, subject to the Court’s bonus additions and reductions ordered since the date of that agreement, with an alternative calculation based on the Court’s basic wage, lesg 10s per week, repre. senting the saving in domestic expenditure for a married man having his rations provided on board. The Court considered the pre-war rates too low in comparison with those paid for shore workers, to base the calculation on them as requested by the employers. The Australian rates were at present higher by £1 5s Sd per month than those awarded by the Court, but were subject to revision on November 1. February 1 and May 1; whereas the rates fixed by the new award would not be subject to variation until May 1 next. The Court agreed, owing to the unusual position of seamen and ships, to re-insert the clause in regard to stop-work meetings.