The Building Trade.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 2, 1 October 1919, Page 619

The Building Trade.

Single Award Sought at Auckland. A movement is on foot in Auckland, which, if successful, will go far to relieve employers of many harassing details regarding workers. It is no less than an attempt to frame a comprehensive award for

all branches of the building trade. A meeting will be held this month and it is considered by those concerned that greater industrial efficiency and uniformity of conditions will result, especially in the matter of hours and working conditions. The conference will be presided over by the conciliation commissioner, Mir. T. Harle Giles. The employers will be represented by members of the Auckland Master Builders’ Association, and the workers by delegates from the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, Bricklayers’ Union,

Operative Plasterers’ Union, Electrical Workers’ Union, United Furniture Trades’ Union, Painters’ Union, Plumbers’ Union, and Operative Stonemasons’ Union. It is stated that the commissioner was approached recently by members of the Building Trades’ Federation and several employers concerning the proposals, and the conference has been called as a result. It is probable other unions likely to be affected by the one award will be represented. > Mr. Giles said recently that there were at present ten awards in the building trade. Six of these would expire in January next, and those affected

considered the amalgamation of the whole of the trade would prove better than the renewal of the six awards.

Employers and workmen state that at present the large number of kindred awards leads to confusion.

The vice-president of the Master Builders’ Association, Mr. T. Julian, thinks the proposal a good one. There had been too much overlapping in past awards. “I can safely say,” said Mr Julian to an interviewer, “that the Auckland Master Builders’ Association will, for the greater part, favour the new scheme. Both employers and worker's have already talked the matter over, and at a meeting held some time ago delegates from the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters met 'representatives of our association, and decided to act.”

The one award would probably mean that workers’ wages would be increased, added Mr. Julian, but the increased efficiency gained by it would warrant the additional cost to the employers. Under the old awards, which were all expiring and being renewed at different times, employers did not know where they were.

The employer's will consider the matter at a special meeting to be held shortly.