EXTRA DAY'S PAY?

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 66, 10 December 1937, Page 6

EXTRA DAY'S PAY?

i — Press Association.)

Christmas Day This Yea^ Falls on Normal Holiday INTERPRETATION SOUGHT0

(By Telegraph

WELLINGTON, Last Night. The recent interpretation by thd Court of Arbitration of the Factories Act regarding holiday payments ha# been the subject of an inquiry by the advisory board of the New Zealand Employers' Federation, which has is« sued the following statement:^ "This interpretation requires .thaf factory workers, if employed at any; time in the f ortnight ending on the day of a holiday, must be paid for Christmas Day, which falls on a Saturday, and for Boxing Day, which falls on a Sunday, in addition to their week's wages. We believe this was riot thd intention of Parliament when the law. was passed, and that it is probably not even a correct interpretation of the law; as it stands. We have, therefore, approached the Government and' asked that the original intention of the legislation, as we understand it in 1936 and as expressed by the Department of Labour subsequently should be given full effeet to. This intention is clearly, expressed in the following extraftt from an official letter of the Department of Labour written before the interpretation by the Court: . " 'When a holiday occurs on a Saturn day, the department does not insiut 011 payment being made to regular hands whose employment is' from Monday toi Friday in each week.' "So long as in each week the work* er receives his full week's wages, w€j consider that the Act has beeu compli* ed with and that it is not neeessary to pay him Ja. extra day's wages merely; by reason of the fact that the holidayj in that particular instance, as for, example Boxing Day last, occurs on aj Saturday. W© also hope to have an op« portunity of obtaining an interpretation of the law from the Supreme Court^ "Pending the 'final deeision of thd question, tn© advisory board recOmA mends all employers to withhold pay* ment. This action is to be entirelyf without prejudice to any rights. that. the workers ultimately may be deeided' to have, and which in respect to Boxing Day, 1936, might be affected by .thq effluxion of time. "The board wishes .it to be under* stood clearly that the recommendatiom is only that payment should be deferredj until the "position has been finally cleared up. If the result is a confirma* tiou of tne present interpretation, no| workers should be prejudiced as to their right to payment through: any technL cal advantage which might accrue tft the employers because of the delay."