DRIVERS’ UNION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 January 1942, Page 2

DRIVERS’ UNION

NEW AWARD APPLIED FOR DISPUTE OVER WAGES. OFFER FROM WORKERS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) . WELLINGTON, This Day. On the ground that every eflort should be devoted to assisting the Government in its war effort at the present critical period, the employers opposed an increase in wages asked for by the N.Z. Road Transport and Motor and Horse Drivers’ Industrial Association of Workers in an application for a new Dominion award in conciliation council in Wellington yesterday. When the clause dealing with the rates of wages was reached, Mr Allerby, for the workers, said that for the employers to offer £5 5s a week as the minimum rate, taking into consideration the class of drivers, was an insult to the workers. When the present award was made in June, 1938, the Court awarded the drivers £5 10s a week, plus the cost of living bonus of 5 per cent. The. employers, in their counter-pro-posals, suggested that the ordinary hours of work for omnibus drivers should be 88 a fortnight, provided that the maximum hours that might be worked in any week without payment of overtime should be 48. Regarding service car drivers, the employers claimed that the ordinary hours of work should be 96 a fortnight. With casual drivers, it was suggested that these might be employed at 2s lid an hour ordinary time, and 3s 4d an hour for time worked in excess of 10 hours on any one day. It was claimed that the minimum wage payable to omnibus and service car drivers should be £5 5s a week. ’ After both sides had conferred. Mr Allerby, advocate for the workers, said that the workers werte prepared to accept an increase in wages of 5s a week for the present hours, and the conditions of the present award. Mr H. J. Bishop said that the employers’ assessors had not yet come to a decision with regard to hours and wages for service car drivers, but would reply to the offer made by the workers when the council resumed its sitting.