THE AGREEMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 2 April 1913, Page 7

THE AGREEMENT.

BETWEEN COMPANIES AND NEW UNION. The agreement signed on Saturday last between the Gear Meat Company and the Wellington Export Company (employeiW) and the Ngahauronga and Petone Slaughtermen's Union (employees) is to come into force as from March 27, and is to remain in operation for three years. Briefly the terms of the agreement are:— HOURS OF WORK. The*-ordinary hours of work shall be between 7 a.m. and <5 p.m., and on ordinary days work shall not exceed 1 eight hours. Ordinary Saturday work shall not exceed four hours. Intervals for meals shall be as at present, Unless otherwise • mutually arranged. BATES OF PAY. The rates of pay will be as follows : Freezing sheep and lambs, £1 7.S' 6d per 1Q0; rams other than lambs, 5d pei* head; lambs requiring back sets, 5d per head; dead sheep and lambs, Is per head; cattle, 2s per (head 1 ; dead cattle 5s per head; pigs up to 1201b, Is per head; pigs over 1201b, Is 6d per (head; calves up to 1301b, Is per head; calves over 1301b, Is 6d per head ; potter sheep, £1 per 100. . The wages shall be paid weekly or fortnightly, according to the practice in particular .sheds. WAITING TIME AND OTHER MATTERS. Slaughtermen shall wait 15 minutes in the event of a cut-out, but- after that time they shall .be ,paid : at the rate of 2s per hour for all time so occupied. In defining slaughtermen's wot ' the agreement states that all butchering is to be done to the satisfaction : of the foreman, butcher, and that the killing pace is, to be regulated by the j employers. Penalty is provided against damage to skins and carcases by employees. ABOUT LEARNERS. ' Learners' hooks shall be kept separate as far as reasonably practicable from th§ hooks provided for-slaughtfrls. There shall not be more than one learner to every six slaughtermen or fraction of the first, «ix. Each, em- j ployer shall lie entitled to ha.ve one learner in each beef slaughterhouse, and such learner jnay be taken off the mutton board. Employers may engage competent workmen to teach learners. . . Preference to unionists shall apply to learners. Learners shall be paid the. full rates when deemed by the foreman butcher to be competent slaughtermen. In the eveiit of a learner being employed in the beefhouse, the employers shall pay half and-the slaughtermen the other half of his wages. HOLIDAYS AND OVERTIME, Not more than two men shall be allowed to work on any on© pen. The folowing holidays shall be observed .—New Year's Day, Christmas ' Day, Boxing Day, King's Birthday, Gpod Friday, Easter Monday, Labour Day, and tw r o other-days, to be arranged to meet requirements. Work done on Good Friday, Ohrist>mas Day and Sundays shall be paid for at double rates, and on any of the other clays mentioned at rate and a half. Ordinary overtime shall be .paid for at the rate of time and a quarter; and not more than one hour's overtime per day shall be Worked except on Saturdays, when four extra hours shall be worked if required, and on that day all work shall cease not later than 4 p.m. FOR CUTTING OUT. Preference shall be given to members of the union. The conditions in respect to dressing and dining rooms now in existence shall continue'. In order to cut out. any mob which may be on hand at knock-off time, ; workers shall, if required, each slaughter up to three sheep or lambs per man at ordinary rates.