RACING STABLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1938, Page 8

RACING STABLES

DEMANDS MADE BY UNION OF WORKERS. THE FIRST OF THEIR KIND IN NEW ZEALAND. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Better wages, living conditions and hours of work are the main points dealt with in the proposed agreement which the Canterbury Stable Hands' Union has forwarded to the Canterbury Owners’, Breeders’ and Trainers’ Association for consideration. This is the first proposal of its kind in New Zealand. The Owners’ Association will consider the demands at a meeting tomorrow. Night wages have been framed as follows: Head lad, £2 10s a week; adult workers, twenty-one years and over, £1 10s; under twenty-one years) £1 ss; apprentices 10s for the first six months of probation, 15s for the next eighteen months and thereafter £1 a week till they have served their apprenticeship term. Adult stroppers in trotting stables, £2 a week, as they look after more horses as a general rule than stroppers in racing stables. Casual workers, 10s a day, with a minimum of three days when attending race meetings, otherwise ordinary rates. There is no set rate at present, but in Canterbury stables anything from 10s to £1 5s a week is paid. One day off in every week, with a maximum of fifty-six hours’ working time and the employing of one apprentice to every two stable hands, are other features. Earlier it was anticipated that the demands would be. far in excess of those made, but a lead to the actual position was given some time ago, when it was announced that they would be reasonable.