LABOUR MATTERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2553, 14 July 1909, Page 4

LABOUR MATTERS.

ARBITRATION COURT AWARDS.

(For Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, July 13. The following award has boon made 'by'the Arbitration Court in the Rattan and Wickervvorkers’ dispute : The hours ol : work shall be 44 per week. Overtime shall be paid for at the rate of time and a-quarter for tho first three hours and time and a half afterwards, and doublo time, for work done on Sundays. The minimum wage shall be Is 2d per hour. All piecework and the bonus system shall be prohiibted. No employee shall be a contractor whilst working for an employer. All work shall be performed in tho factory or the employer. An industrial agreement m the dispute between the Operative Stonemasons’ Union and the Employers Union has boon filed as an .award, which will remain in force until Ju'y, 1911. The principal conditions of the award are: Hours of work, forty-four per week. Minimum wages of journeymen, Is 6d per hour. Overtime, time and a-quarter for the first four, hours and time and a-half afterwards and on holidays, and double time after 5 p.m. on Saturdays. Under-rate permits are provided for, and a preference clause provides that an employer, if caked on to do so by tho Union, shall dismiss any worker who, within seven days of. his employment, does not join the Union. The award prohibits piecework. The saddlers’ award, which will come into operation from July 19th until December 31st, 1909, was practically agreed upon by the parties. A memorandum to the award states that the clauses were all agreed on, excepting those relating to preference and wages. The provisions as to preference are those contained in the last award, which were agreed on by the parties. The minimum wage, fixed by the previous award, which the memorandum continues, was Is per hour, and that would be continued. DISSENSION IN CHRISTCHURCix. Although no secessions from the Trades and Labor Council were announced at the meeting on Saturday evening, the disaffection amongst unions tree ms to be spreading rapidly. Several unions meet this week to consider the question of allegiance, and two, the Metal-workers and Ironmouklers. have definitely decided to withdraw. Several other secessions are expected. No steps have been taken by the disaffected yet to combine. A proposal to establish another body in opposition to the Trades council has been discussed amongst individual members of the unions,. and a scheme in this direction maybe prepared in a lew days. The result of the annual meeting of the Trades Council on Saturday evening has not had the effect of narrowing the breach. Most of the officers elected belong to the “red flag” section, as Socialists are called. The Parliamentary Bills Committee also contains some prominent Socialists. It is stated that several of the steadier members of the Council declined to be nominated, as they did not wish to bo associated with the advanced section. The meeting was characteristic of most meetings of the Council lately, the old members being conspicuous by their absence, and leaving the field in possession of those who have introduced general polities, and who are accused of using the Council as a means of advancing their own political views and aspirations. The Bottle Employees’ Union, which feels that it has been treated by the Council with discourtesy and contumely, and which is amongst the secessionists, will probably hold aloof from any organisation of the nature of a Trades Council. The members of that Uuion believe that- their interest will be served best by the establishment of a federation embracing the employees in all the principal centres of the Dominion.

BREACH OF AN AWARD

O.AMARU. July 13

J. E. Broad was to-day fined 10s and costs for a breach of the Otago award for .saddlers, harness, and .collar makers, in that he employed a man for journeyman’s work at less than the wage fixed by the award. The offence was admitted, defendant stating that lie had intended to obtain a journeyman from Dunedin or Christchurch. The. man employed was an unfinished apprentice, and received a higher wage than lie would have otherwise received at that stage of training. It was pointed out to defendant that application should have been made for a permit to employ the man at under-rate pay.