CLOTHING AWARD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 June 1938, Page 8

CLOTHING AWARD

DEFENCE OF INCREASED WAGE RATES VIEWS OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOUR. MR. F. D. CORNWELL REPLIES TO CRITICISM. By Telegraph.—Press Association, WELLINGTON, This Day. The contention that the rates of wages prescribed in the clothing trades award recently issued by the Second Court of Arbitration gave no more than a bare living wage was made yesterday by Mr F. D. Cornwell, secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, and a workers’ advocate, in the course of replying to criticism of the award by Mr D. I. Macdonald, secretary of the Canterbury Employers’ Association. “Mi' Macdonald,” said Mr Cornwell, “is reported to have declared: ‘While in accordance with the only policy which the Second Court seems to have —to increase wages and further restrict industry —some increase in wages was to be expected, the substantial increase granted to women will be calamitous for the industry and possibly for the workers who depend on it for their livelihood.’ He also says that in his opinion the two courts are acting on an entirely different basis. Were it not for the seriousness of this statement one would be prepared to treat it with the contempt it deserves. FEMALE APPRENTICES. “In the first place, the last clothing trades award was made by Mr Justice Page on September 17, 1936, and it provided for female apprentices and improvers being paid the Factories Act rate of wages, which were set out in the award, and journey women receiving £2 5s a week. In the last woollen workers’ award, issued by Mr Justice Frazer on August 31, 1928, fates of wages were set out for girls which, while starting at the same rate as the clothing trades in the award which 1 have just quoted, did not' give the 4s increment provided for by the Factories Act, 1936. As the Factories Act would operate from the date that it came into force, it would give the girls employed in woollen mills identically the same rates of wages as female apprentices and improvers in clothing factories. “I have said that journeywomen in the clothing trade would receive £2 5s a week, and journeywomen in the clothing factory Is per hour for a 45hour week, which' brings them up to identically the same rate. COURT STANDARDS. “The Court of Arbitration recently issued an award covering, among others females employed in woollen mills, and gave them certain rises in wages bringing the journeywomen’s rate up to £2 10s a week. The clothing trades award which, as I have pointed out before, was on all fours with the woollen workers’ award, copied the fates issued by the other court in so far as female'workers were concerned, so that I cannot see that Mr Macdonald has a great deal to complain about; he certainly cannot charge one court with running contrary to the decision of the other. “I am unable to read from the memorandum to the award where Mr Justice Hunter says that the court cannot be concerned with the ability of the industry to pay. What I read is that Mr Justice Hunter says that the matter of tariffs is one for the Legislature and not for the court. “It might be to Mr Macdonald’s advantage, seeing that he is a young advocate in industrial matters, to point out to him that judges of the Arbitration Court, not only in this country but in Australia, have repeatedly stated that an industry that cannot pay a living wage does not deserve any consideration, and if Mr Macdonald can argue that the rates of wages as set out in the clothing trades award give anything but a bare" living wage to the workers concerned, I shall be pleased to hear it.” WAGES & COSTS PROTEST BY DOMINION MANUFACTURERS. INDUSTRIES BEING CRUCIFIED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day.

The -New Zealand Manufacturers' Association, in a statement, says that of Mr F. D. Cornwell, secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, has made it plain to everyone that that our manufacturing industries are being slowly but surely squeezed out of existence.

“Mr Cornwell pointed out that Judges of the Arbitration Court had stated repeatedly that an industry that could not pay a living wage did not deserve any consideration,” the statement proceeds. “He pointed out also that the court says the matter of tariffs is one for the Legislature and not for a court. The court goes steadily on with the practice of increasing costs, the Government goes steadily on with the practice of ignoring the consequences of these increases. The manufacturing industries are being crucified upon a cross of political expediency. Under these circumstances, every sentence in an award means, in the final issue, a hundred workers out of a job. “In regard to the doctrine that an industry that cannot pay a living wage does not deserve any consideration, we must point out that industries which paid their way for many years cannot do so today, and through no fault of their own, as a result of the costraising burdens imposed by industrial legislation. They are, therefore, to be considered in the eyes of the Arbitration Court as unworthy of existing. In these industries empty benches and idle machines are a tragic sight. Mr Cornwell refers to a living wage. What foundation has he for the statement that the scale prior to the new award was not a living wage? Can

he tell us what relationship any of these recent awards has had to the living wage scale. The living wage relates to a man, wife and three children. The awards prescribe wages for adult males and females, irrespective of their condition. Is organised Labour out to get the maximum, regardless of the ability of industry to pay? If so, it should state it frankly and openly. On the 1926-30 base of- a thousand, the latest ’Abstract of Statistics' gave the price index (retail) for March as 942 and the wage rate index (adult males) as 1063. Meantime, the Arbitration Court is just as active in its work as the Government is inactive in its duties and obligations to the producing industries of the Dominion. Accordingly, every industrj’ subject to overseas competition must look forward to qualifying sooner or later for the category of industries which cannot pay a living wage. When that time comes for each of them, it will not deserve any consideration, as in all such situations it is the public which will be the sufferer and will bear the burden. A country with its producing industries destroyed is a country doomed to destruction.” .