OVERTIME WORK

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10610, 8 June 1920, Page 4

OVERTIME WORK

,AX IMPORTANT JUDGMENT. ' ■ MAGISTJIATE’S~DECiSIOX IX AUCKLAND CASES. I'EK FKESS ASSOCIATION. AUCKLAND. June 7. Judgment in eases arising out of the refusal 'of certain workers in the allied iron trades to 1 work, overtime last September, was given by Air Wilson, S.M., to-day. Tho Inspector of Awards claimed £2OO each from the Auckland Boilermakers’ Union- and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, and £llOO from 11. E. Banter, secretary of the last-named union, and £4OO from A. H. Philip, secretary of it ho two other unions. Judgment for £SO was given for plaintiff -against each -union, and judgment was given tor the union secretaries on the grounds that- the claims against them might be treated as being alternative to the others. The magistrate said he hud found that the workers individually had a right to refuse to work overtime, and in”the case of an individual lie would have to find that he had not. been guilty of striking. In the present ease, under the direction of their unions, the men had refused to work overtime, not as individuals, but as a body, as u means of compelling certain employers to concede certain, payment to oilier workers. They therefore converted their right ot privilege into a moans of compulsion as against those employers The magistrate considered that this constituted an unlawful strike.