DAIRY INDUSTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 June 1943, Page 6

DAIRY INDUSTRY

FACTORY WORKERS’ WAGES A NEW AWARD. AN INCREASE GRANTED BY COURT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A. flat increase' of 6s 6d a week to the wages of dairy factory workers, with an increase of hours to be worked in cheese factories! at certain times of the year, a provision of Is a shift to all workers employed on al l , shifts, and alterations as to the conditions ci work on certain specified holidays, are contained in a new award by the Court of Arbitration for the'New Zealand Daily Factories and Related Trades. The award, so far as it relates to wages, is to be deemed to have come into force on February 22. and will continue to operate till July 31. 1944. In a memorandum accompanying the award the judge of the Court, Mr Justice Tyndall states that it was felt that some additional’ monetary. consideration should be awarded in respect of the extra hours worked in excess of 40. Such extra hours had been recognised in a number of other awaids in ether industries in recent years. The memorandum nctes that the usual minimum rate in awards for male adult workers called ripen to work a 40-hour week is X 4 lbs a. week, increased by the Courts two general orders. This was the minimum weekly rate previously prescribed for the lowest grade of male adult worker in the dairy factory industry, but this had. however, usually been augmented by extra payments for Sunday work. The new award provides that cheese factories shall work a 48-hour week for 39 weeks of the year, and 38 hours a week in the re-maining 13 weeks, provided that m any factory equipped with three vats or less the employers may require workers to work up to 52 hours a week lor any period during the flush of the season, not exceeding 2weeks. Tire workers requqircd.. to wore hours in excess of 48 pursuant to this provision are to be paid 5s a week in excess of the appropriate rates of the award. The same hours as in tire cheese factor re-... are to be worked in cascin-creamcries, without the provision, however, for 52-hour weeks. Hours in other factories of the induitry are unchanged. A new provision affecting all da-‘ ’ m--" tcries is that, any time in excess of 10 hour.’ in any one day is to be paid lor at Overtime rate. 1 . Shift workers employed on all smlts arc to be* paid Is a shift extra. Workers employed on certain specified holidays, one of which is Anzac Day. are to receive one half day’s wages in addition to the weekly wage or are to be allowed a cay off in lieu of the holiday. Workers called upon to pull presses alter their day’s work is finished are to be paid 3d a press a day. with a limit of two pulls after hours, but no limit is placed upon the time of the last pull. Mi- Monteith, workers' representative on the Court, has issued a memciandum disscnting from the award. He states that inc cheese workers on the base rate will, while working 48 hours a week, get approximately 2s an hour plus two co:t-of-living bonuses, while butter workers will get 2s 2d an hour for a 48-hour week. He also states that a large number of the workers are pul oil m slack season, and to average the year without recognising this fact gives an entirely unfair base.