New Regulations in Papua
p. 12 · Read in the full issue
Labour Conditions
Employers’ Objections
From Our Own Correspondent
PT. MORESBY, August 4.
THREE measures in relation to na tive labour have been recently passed by the Legislative Council, which sat in July. They have caused no little comment from planters and employers of native labour.
Up to the present employers of na tive labour have been charged a fee of 6/- on making a contract of ser vice.
The new regulation adds to the pre sent fee a further charge of 3d. in the £ on the amount the native will earn under the contract, bringing the fee for the signing on of a native at 10/a month for 2 years up to 9/-. This new measure is in addition to a for mer one, whereby employers unable to procure assured guarantees must pay their wages in advance, together with the native’s return passage to his vil lage.
The Government announces the ad ditional fee is to be placed to the credit account of a separate fund, to provide against possible default by em ployers in the payment of their wages, an added precaution to the former re gulation.
The second measure states that all casual labourers will be now considered as being engaged under the Native La bour Ordinances. This means that all the provisions of the ordinance apply to casual as well as indentured lab ourers.
It is said the main objection to this measure is that a clause in the ordin ance insists that all wages be paid to casuals in the presence of a magis trate. This entails inconvenience and delay to many plantations in the divi sions which are three to four days distant from Government stations.
The last measure provides for ad vances to be made to natives on their contracts up to an amount equal to one-third of their wages. For the last year or two natives have been unable to obtain any advances whatever, even under long contracts of two to three years. This has been found to be un satisfactory, both for the native as well as the employer.
The Government considers the first two regulations consistent with the un certainty of the market values of to day and the depressed state of the plantations, and enforces them only as a provision against possible default, not in anticipation, but in preparation for such emergencies.
The employers and planters, on the other hand, complain that these new labour conditions, together with the enforced primage duty, when added to their ever-increasing difficulties, make their position well nigh insupportable and that they are suffering inordin ately and are forced to shoulder a bur den which should be shared by the community in general.