REFUSAL TO WORK OVERTIME

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 217, 8 June 1920, Page 6

REFUSAL TO WORK OVERTIME

; » MAGISTRATE DECIDES IMPORTANT POINT. By Telegraph-Press Association. Auckland, Juno 7. Judgment in cases arising out of (the refusal of certain workers in allied iron trades to work overtime last September was given by Mr. Wilson, S.M., to-day. Tho Inspector of Awards claimed ,£2OO each from the Auckland Boilermakers' Union and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, and ,£2OO from R. F. Barter (secretary of the last-named union), and JI4OO from A. H. Philip (secretary of two other unions), f Judgment for ,£SO was given for plaintiff against each union, and judgment was given for the union secretaries on the ground that tho claims | against them might be treated as being< alternative to the others. Tho Magisstrate said he had found that workers in dividuaJly had a right to refuse to work overtime, and in tiie case of an individual he would have to find that he had not teen guilty of striking. In the present case, under the direction of their unions, men had refused overtime, not as individuals, but as a body, as a means of compelling certain employers to concede a certain payment to other workers. They therefore converted their right or privilege into a means of compulsion as against those employers. The Magistrate considered that tliis constituted an unlawful strike. '