FARES MUST BE PAID

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 423, 3 August 1928, Page 16

FARES MUST BE PAID

EMPLOYEES ON SUBURBAN JOBS ARBITRATION COURT’S RULING Declaring that it would be a travesty if a firm on obtaining a big job in the suburbs were entitled to declare that the “shop” was on the job and refuse travelling time and fares to men from the city, the Arbitration Court gave judgment in an important case yesterday. The inspector of awards, Mr. J. Hollows, proceeded against John Chambers and Sons, Ltd., for an alleged breach of the Builders’ Contractors' and General Labourers’ Award, by employing a number of men on roofing work at the new railway workshops at Otahuhu, in May and June, without paying them travelling time and fares, as required by the award for suburban work. According to Mr. Hollows the men were engaged by the manager of the Neuchatel Asphalte Company under a friendly arrangement with Chambers and Sons. The men were sent out with a letter to the foreman at Otahuhu. It was contended that the usual conditions of suburban work should apply to them, as they were engaged in the city where the company’s “shop” was. Mr. S. E. Wright, for the defendant company, said the case was important, because 43 men had been involved for a period of four months, and the whole work had occupied six months. He submitted that the men had been engaged, not in Auckland, but on the job by the foreman. The company had no “shop” in Auckland. The material for the roofing job was imported direct by the company as agent for the New Zealand Government, and was delivered direct, not through the company’s store. The court found the men were in fact engaged at Otahuhu, but held that Otahuhu could not be regarded as the defendant company’s “shop” within the meaning of the award, since, according to the evidence, it had in Auckland a bulk store where plant was kept and smaller jobs were done. The fact that in this instance the men had received considerable overtime payments did not affect the question, nor did the method by which material was delivered on the job. Judgment was given against the company with costs.