DAIRY EMPLOYEES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 217, 13 August 1937, Page 9

DAIRY EMPLOYEES

HOLIDAY PAY CLAIMED. ARBITRATION PROCEEDINGS. Difficulty in reconciling interpretations of the Finance Act with other legislation and the conditions of a prior award which had been in existence led to an involved case being placed before the Arbitration Court a.t Palmerston North yeyterday afternoon, when the proceedings occupied some hours. His Honour Mr Justice O’Regan presided, with him as assessors being Messrs W. Cecil Prime (employers’ representative) and A. L. Monteitli (employees’ representative). The case was one in which the Inspector of Awards (Mr G. G. Brown) had claimed a penalty of £5 from the Taikorea Dairy Company for an alleged breach of the Wellington Industrial District Dairy Factories Employees’ Award in respect of holiday pay for the staff. The company, for whom Mr J P. Stevenson, of Wellington, appeared, maintained that they had complied with legislative requirements by paying the 1931 award rate, plus rate and a half for Saturday afternoons, Sundays and statutory holidays. The matter had been referred from the Magistrate’s Court to the Arbitration Court for a decision.

Mr Brown submitted that Section 16 of the Finance Act ha.d to be applied to the Dairy Employees’ Award of 1930, which had stipulated that casual workers enguged for not less than eight months for the same employer in the same season should receive three weeks holiday on full pay, with proportionate holidays for any like period between two and eight months. This award had expired in November, 1932. Mr Stevenson, for the company, maintained that in 1931 tho three weeks’ holiday had been given only as compensation for the seven-day working week, but it was clear from memorandums to subsequent awards in other districts that this was not Intended to apply when the six-day week came into operation. He said that it could not be expected that employees should add all the concessions held prior to 1931 to the benefits obtained under the Finance Act, which was intended to restore no more than the original conditions ruling. Decision was reserved.