WAGES CLAIM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1941, Page 5

WAGES CLAIM

MADE BY IRON WORKERS IN N.S.W. ON ACCOUNT OF COMPANY PROFITS. SOME POSSIBLE GROUNDS OF OBJECTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) SYDNEY, September 2. Between 8000 and 9000 iron workers employed by the Broken Hill Proprietary Company are applying to the New South Wales Industrial Court for a 20s weekly increase payable out of the profits of that company. This is regarded as a departure from the usual wage taxation principles. The company’s counsel, Mr F. Kitto, foreshadowed an objection to the application as an attempt to import novel, improper and inconsistent principles into wage claims. Mr Justice Cantor said the application might be determined in the employers’ favour on the ground that it was not within the jurisdiction of the Court. However, he would allow the iron workers to present their case before questioning its propriety.

The basis of the iron workers’ claim is that the iron and steel industry in Australia is owned and controlled by one company with wide ramifications, and which by its great profits is well able to pay a minimum wage on the lines of the application. Moreover, the development of this industry, it is claimed, is in no small measure due to the workers employed in it and public assistance from the Government of the day and concessions in respect of tariffs, bounties and freights. The hearing was adjourned.