STONEMASON WORK?

Evening Star, Issue 23679, 12 September 1940, Page 8

STONEMASON WORK?

ACTION AGAINST BOROUGH COUNCIL [Per United Press Association.] WAIHI, September 12. Whether five men who had been employed by the Waihi Borough Council under scheme 13 on the building of stone walls were entitled to be paid wages at the rates provided under the New Zealand Stonemason’s award, was a point which Mr W. H. Freeman, S.M., was called upon to decide in the Waihi Magistrate’s Court when proceedings were taken against the council to recover more than £IOO, the balance between the amounts paid the men and that payable under the stonemasons’■ award, There was also claimed from the council a penalty of £5 in respect of each man for alleged breach of the Northern Industrial District Borough Councils’ award in that the council failed to pay its employees on work covered by another award the rate fixed by such award. Mr F. H. Haigh (Auckland), who appeared for the Stonemasons’ Union, said the point he wished to make was that the work the men had been doing was work covered by the Stonemasons’ award, and that being the case, the men were required to be paid for such work at the rate of 2s IOJd an hour, instead of the 2s 4d and 2s 5d they had received. The Magistrate: It boils down then, to this—whether or not the work done was stonemasons’ work? Mr Haigh; That is how I see it, sir. After evidence had been given by the men as to the nature of the work performed and the tools used, Mr F. C. 0. Clark, on behalf of the council, unsuccessfully applied for a non-suit on the ground that, in order to succeed, plaintiffs must be entered on the books of the union as stonemasons, that no notice had been given tbe council under section 301 of the Municipal Corporations Act. and that action must be commenced within six months. Decision was reserved.