Payment of Wages.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 21 December 1918, Page 1

Payment of Wages.

DURING- INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC

The Solicitor-General has given the following opinion on the obligation of employers to pay wages to their employees during the influenza epidemic, whicih l should prove of general interest:—

"I am asked to advise as to the obligations of employers to pay wages to their employers during the period for which pln-ccis of business were closed by order of the District Health Officer in vieiv of the epidemic of influenza. iSiieli compulsory eloping of places of business does not in itself in any manner take away or affect the obligations of employers to pay wagcis. So long; as ,a servant is not guilty of misconduct live is entitled to* be paid liis wages until his engagement lias been lawfully terminated by t'he requisite notice. It makes no difference that by reason of some emergency he lia.s been prevented from actually working. The . only employers, therefore, who <\in refuse to pay wages are those who, on the closing of their premises, took occasion to terminate the engagement of their servants in the proper manner, having regard to the terms of that engagement, the custom of the trade, and flie provisions of any award, or industrial agreement relative thereto. I ought to add, (however, in order to avoid misapprehension, that in the case of servants employed by the day or hour, the terms of their employment may be such that the mere closing of the employer's place of business ir> in itself a sufficient notice of the termination of tlieir employment."