WATERFRONT HOURS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 36, 11 August 1936, Page 11

WATERFRONT HOURS

MAJORITY DECISION

NO REDUCTION MADE

A DISSENTING VIEW

By a judgment delivered today the Arbitration Court lias decided by a majority that the 44 hours per week provided for waterside workers at the present time shall not be reduced. The Court held that the average hours of waterside workers were much below 40, and that an alteration would not lead to more employment but merely to more payment for the same work. Mr. A. L. Monteith, the workers' representative, dissented and appended a memorandum setting out his reasons for doing so.

"All work done on the waterfront throughout New Zealand is casual work—that is to say, the watersiders are not in permanent employment," the judgment' states. "When a ship requires to be worked labour is picked up from the group of men offering for employment, and when the ship has completed discharging or loading or the job is otherwise finished the employment ceases, the men being paid according to." the number of hours worked. ~

"The award fixes the ordinary hours as being from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays to Fridays, inclusive, and from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. Work done within the limits of those hours is paid for at ordinary rates. Work done outside, the limits of those hours, for example, in the evenings or on Saturday afternoons or on Sundays, is paid for at overtime rates, irrespective of the number of hours that the individual watersider may have worked during that day or week. By reason of the intermittent nature of the work arid of the large ( number of men following the industry,' the average number of hours, exclusive of overtime, worked by watersiders throughout New Zealand is far below 40 per week. AVERAGE HOURS WORKED, n "The various returns put in show that the average time /worked, by watersiders at the main ports at ordinary rates is about 23 hours per week, and at overtime rates about 7 hours per week, a total, including ordinary and overtime, of, say, ,30 hours per week. At the smaller ports the average number of hours worked per week would be still lower. "The two main objects sought to be achieved by the recent legislation relating to a 40-hour week are:—(a) To give employment to a greater number of workers, and (b) to give workers more leisure.

"Neither of these objects would be achieved by an interference with the normal working hours on the waterfront. "Indeed, the problem that for many years has'exercised the mind of the Court of Arbitration and of .those interested in the work of watersiders has been not how to reduce their weekly working hours but how to increase them.

"Moreover, the purpose of the present application is not to obtain a reduction of the weekly working Ijours of watersiders. Its admitted and avowed purpose is to obtain not a reduction of working hours but a restriction of the daily hours during which work at ordinary rates of pay will be allowed to proceed.. So that on a five-day 40----hour, week being declared in this industry, overtime rates of pay could be claimed for all work done on Saturdays'. In our view, the statute is not intended merely to give s extra wages while men continue to work the same hours as before. ...

"The sole question before us is that of a reduction of the number of hours per week'during which work at ordinary rates of pay can be carried, on. In our opinion it is impracticable to carry on this industry efficiently on the reduced working, week applied for. The application must, therefore, be refused." MR. MONTEITH'S DISSENT. "In this award no maximum of ordinary hours is mentioned, but in effect 44 is the limit of ordinary hours," Mr. Monteith stated. "In my opinion, the Court is bound to insert 40 hours as the maximum, if it is practicable to carry on efficiently the industry. The Court has, if possible, to endeayour to give the Saturday off. In some cases the Court has given the workers the 40 hours under section 21, but; has not seen its way to order that no work shall be done on Saturday. It is clear that firstly an order must be made under section 21 before an order under section 22 can be made.

"The employers stated that it was impossible to carry on this industry without Saturday morning work. Be that as it may, it is my opinion that this industry certainly is one in which an order, fixing at not more than forty hours the weekly period, could have been made. In this case the employers' representatives and the N workers' representatives submitted evidence that the average weekly employment was much less than forty hours. The employers' figures showed that the employment averaged only 31.68 hours per week, ordinary and overtime. The workers presented data showing the average was less than 27 hours per week. In view of this, lam of opinion that the employers did not prove that it' was impracticable to carry on this industry if the ordinary hours were reduced to 40 per week, as it was clearly shown that the industry has been carried on for a number of years by men being employed, on an average, fewer hours than forty per week.

"Section. 21, sub-section 1, is very clear,. using the word 'shall,' and in view of the foregoing I am strongly of the opinion that a forty-hour week should have been inserted in this award. I "IRRELEVANT SUGGESTIONS." "The employers advanced two suggestions why an order should not be made: one, that the union was considering cancellation of registration, and the other that theaward had only a short time to run. Both, in my opinion, are irrelevant. The section states "the Court shall, by order made as soon as possible after the filing of the application," etc., and any union having an award is clearly within its rights in making, an'application.

"The employers also placed the financial position of four small companies before the Court. One was in a satisfactory position; two others had been affected by new railways in recent years, and both had suffered by modern land transport. The Court, under section 21, must not consider a small minority, but the. industry, and no proof that the industry generally could not operate was forthcoming.

"For these reasons I dissent from the decision of the majority, and am of opinion that an order should be made in favour of the applicant Waterside Workers' Federation."

Five buses, five drivers, and a mechanic, formerly engaged in Mr. S. A. Crichton's Johnsonville bus service, were taken over yesterday by the Railway Department, which is maintaining the service on the existing timetables and fares.

A frost fish, 6£ feet long, was found on the Otaki beach last week. They have been far from plentiful this season.