ENGINE-DRIVERS’ DISPUTE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 50, 1 March 1939, Page 3

ENGINE-DRIVERS’ DISPUTE

ARBITRATION COURT HEARING. CLAIM FOR NEW AWARD. WELLINGTON, Feb. 28. The hearing of the Dominion engine-drivers’ dispute was resumed in the Court of Arbitration in Wellington yesterday. The case for the employers in the general section was completed, and argument and evidence were submitted in the local body section and the hospital boards’ section. In the general section the major issues in dispute are wages and holidays. In the hospital boards’ section hours of work form the most contentious issue. Written argument was submitted in the power boards' section. Mr. H. J. Bishop, who appeared for the employers, said that, so far as the general section was concerned, almost every industry in the country was affected. The dispute concerned a number of classes of workers, many of whom it had never previously been

suggested should be covered in the engine-drivers’ award. It was virtually impossible for the Court to frame an ward sufficiently elastic to suit the varying needs of all industries. It was preferable in such circumstances to make industry awards, and to include as party to such awards the union which included in its members the workers employed in the power plant of the industry. If that could not be done, then the award should, it was submitted, be so framed as to fit in with the varyious industry awards, and provide in all machinery matters the same provisions. Daily Rate Asked. The employers asked that a daily rate be fixed, Mr. Bishop emphasising that daily rates were fixed in the Northern award in 1938, which was the only one fixed by the Court. He asked the Court to follow this procedure in the present dispute with a provision for an hourly rate where the hours exceeded 40. The rates offered by the employers were as in the Northern award, fl Is 3d a day for first-class certificated men, £1 a day for second-class men,

and ranging from £1 to 17s 6d a day for uncertificated men. Holidays of the industry to which the workers were attached also offered. In the hospital boards’ section, th? claims of the union for hours were: (a) The ordinary hours of work shall not exceed 40 hours in any one period of seven days; (b> the weekly hours shall consist of five shifts, not exceeding eight hours each shift; (cl the shifts of eight hours may be worked during any period of each 24 nours, day or night, or on Saturdays, Sundays, or on any statutory holidays. Wages claimed were £5 15s a week of five shifts for engine-drivers, firemen and firemen-porters in charge of or attending to any boiler.