SHOP ASSISTANTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 177, 28 June 1937, Page 8

SHOP ASSISTANTS

AWARD CLAIMS FRAMED. MAJOR POINTS OUTLINED. Claims have been formulated on behalf of the New Zealand Federated Shop Assistants’ Industrial Association of Workers in their application for a general award, and there are some interesting features in the proposals they aro advancing. It is anticipated that they will be dealt with at a Conciliation Council sitting next, month. Shop assistants in charge of a department of a shop, with or without the duty of buying, or the senior assistant in that department, it is claimed, come within the definition of departniental * manager or manageress. The classification of shop assistants includes storemen, parcel boys, lift attendants, clerks and cashiers, and rest-room or lounge 'attendants. Travellers are defined as employees engaged in canvassing for orders for goods, or soiling orders for goods, in collecting moneys, cash orders and time payments. Juniors are assistants under the age of 21 years. Wages sought for branch managers or manageresses vary from a minimum of £7 a week (with no assistants) to a maximum of £8 10s (in control of three or more assistants); for departmental manager or manageress, from £6 10s to £8; for stock-keepers, £6 10s; for floor superintendents, £8 10s; for window dressers, ticket writers, display and scenic artists, commercial artists and advertising hands, £6 10s; and for travellers, £0 10s. Wages claimed for other employees provide for a starting minimum of £1 a week for males and 17s 6d for females under 10 years of age, thereafter rising at six-monthly intervals to maximums of £5 10s and £4 5s respectively. Where a junior assistant commences without previous experience between the ages of 16 and 17 years the starting wage sought is £1 5s for males and £1 2s Gd for females; between 17 and 18 years, £1 10s and £1 7s 6d; between 18 and 19 years, £1 15s and £1 12s 6d; between 19 and 21 years (when the basic rates apply), £2 2s Gd and £1 17s 6d. Wages sought for storemen and packers vary from £6 for head_ or sole charge workers down to £1 15s (under 17 years of age); for lift attendants, £5; and for parcel boys under 16 years of age, not less than £l. The employment shall be deemed a weekly employment, and no deduction shall be made from the weekly wages. HOURS OF WORK. A week’s work shall not exceed 40 hours, to be worked by seniors between 9 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. One hour shall be allowed for lunch each day. This means that emplovees will actually be working a 373hour week— but no provision has been nude for late shopping night or Saturday work. Hours for juniors, storemen, packers, porters, liftmen and parcel boys, it is claimed, shall be between 8.45 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. on tlie five week days, with an hour allowed for lunch. All meal hours are to be taken between 12 noon and 2 p.m., and no work is to be done on Saturdays. Provision for full holidays includes the union picnic day, and should any of them, including Anzac Day, fall upon a Sunday, then the holiday shall be observed upon the following Monday. Any work done on Sundays or holidays shall be at double rates, in addition to the ordinary weekly wage. Exclusive of the special holidays enumerated, an annual holiday of two weeks on full pay shall bo granted to each worker on the completion of each year of service, and a worker not completing a year of service shall be granted pay in lieu of holidays m the same proportion according to the length of his or her services, it is claimed. An annual holiday list shall be accessible to ‘all workers at least one month before a worker’s annual leave has to be taken. . . , Juniors in any shop, it is iurther advanced, shall not exceed one junior to each three seniors employed, or fraction thereof. Employees engaged in doing work which is paid for at a higher rate than the work they usually perform, shall receive the higher rate for the time employed on such work. When an employer wishes to obtain the services of a worker, the claims state, he shall in the first instance make an application to the secretary of the union to supply him with the required worker. All employees shall be allowed at least ten minutes in the morning and afternoon for refreshments. In any establishment where the employees dress in any particular style or colour (black or white included), such garment not being the employee’s outdoor wearing garment, then such employer shall provide such garment to each employee free. The industrial districts affected under the claims are the Northern (including the Gisborne Judicial District), Taranaki, Wellington (which includes Palmerston North), Nelson, Marlborough, Westland, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.