WORK AND WAGES

Southland Times, Issue 18843, 8 June 1920, Page 5

WORK AND WAGES

AFFAIRS IN NEW ZEALAND. REFUSAL TO WORK OVERTIME. AUCKLAND UNIONS FINED. (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 7. Judgment in cases arising out of the refusal of certain workers in the allied iron trades to work overtime last September was given by Mr J. E. Wilson, S.M., today. The Inspector of Awards claimed £2OO each from the Auckland Boilermakers’

Union and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, and £2OO from R. F. Barter, secretary of the last-named Union, and £4OO from A. Philp, secretary of two other unions. Judgment for £SO was given for plaintiff against each union, and judgment was given for the union secretaries on the ground that the claims against them might bo treated as being alternative to the other. The Magistrate said he had found that the workers individually had a right to refuse to work overtime, and in case of an individual he would have to find that ho had not been guilty of striking. In the present instance, under the direction of their unions, the men had refused overtime work, not as individuals but as a body, as a means of compelling certain employers to concede certain payment to other workers. They therefore converted their right or privilege into a means of compulsion as against those employers. The Magistrate considered that this constituted an unlawful strike.