ARBITRATION COURT.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9067, 6 February 1908, Page 8

ARBITRATION COURT.

Per Press Association. Dunedin, February 4. At the Arbitration Court to-day M. Stevenson was charged with committing a breach of the carters’ award lay failing to pay men for a day on which they did not work owing to the inclemency of the weather. Inspector Hally said that under the award the employer had the option of paying his men either £2 6s or £2 8s per week. If the former sum was paid the men were entitled to receive payment for wet days when they could not work. Respondent for a time paid the men on a £2 8s rate, but latterly had substituted £2 6s as a basis. The day in question was very wet, and the. men waited at the stables all day, being given no work to do. On pay day 6s was deducted from each man’s wages on account of the day off. The men resented this, and on Monday following the pay day went on strike. The defence was that the day was not too wet to work and that defendant ordered the men to yoiro up, but they did not do so. The men, five in number, who went on strike on tJie Monday were charged with participating in a strike. The inspector stated that the strike lasted less than an hour. Decision was reserved in both cases. Decision was also reserved in the following cases :—-Jubilee Coal Company, charged with failure to ballot for certain places in the mine and with failure to place men in the mine in accordance with positions drawn in the ballot; Christie Bros., alleged breach with regard to removal of dross from coal mine and charge of neglecting to ballot. In the case against A. Taylor, charged with a breach of the cabinet makers’ award, by working apprentices without indenturing them, a conviction was recorded. Respondent was ordered to pay costs.