REFUSAL TO WORK OVERTIME.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16855, 8 June 1920, Page 7

REFUSAL TO WORK OVERTIME.

* TWO UNIONS FINED. (press association telegram.) AUCKLAND, Juno 7. J udcTnont in tho eases arising out of tno refusal .of certain workers in tho allied iron trades to work overtime last September, was given by Mr J. E. Wilson, P.M., to-day. Tho Inspector of Awards claimed £200 each from the Auckland Boilermakers' Union and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, and £-00 from J\. F. Harter, secretary of the last-named unions, and £400 from A. H. Philip, secretary of the two other union<. Judgment for £50 was given fWplaintiff against each union, and mont was pven for the union secretaries, on the ground that the claims against them mij;hr- be treated as boinj: alternative to the others. Tlio Magistrate said he had found that workers, individually, had the to refuse to work overtime, and in tlio case of an individual he would have to find that he had not been guilty of striking. In the present case, under the direction of their unions, the* men had refused overtime, not as'individuals. but as a body, as a means of cqmpolliiig certain employers to concede a certain payment, to other workers. Tiiey therefore converted their right or privilege into means of compulsion as against those employers. The Magistrate considered that tins constituted an unlawful strike.