OVERTIME PAYMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 October 1922, Page 5

OVERTIME PAYMENTS.

THE SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT. ARBITRATION COURT RULING. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. At the Arbitration Court, in the case of the Auckland retail shop assistants, it was asked whether overtime was to be calculated on minimum award rates or on the actual rates paid to workers whore such rates were in excess of the minimum rates. The Court stated that as section 8 of the Shops and Offices Act prescribed minimum payment at the rate of time and a half on ordinary rates, that was the rate agreed upon. It followed that overtime payment under the award must not be at a rate less than time and a half on the rate of wages actually agreed upon and paidr and in no case less than the minimum rate. Regarding heads of departments, tne Court said that if such were covered by the award the provision of that award in respect of overtime payments, in the absence of an express direction to the contrary, must apply to those employees, and the rate must be based on actual wages, as in the case of other employees. For the protection of departmental heads paid more than the prescribed rates, whose salaries might possibly be reduced to counteract the payment for overtime, the Court suggested (hat the union and the employers agree on a scale of overtime rates for departmental managers and manageresses based on actual wages, but not at the rate of time and a half, except for those on the minimum award rate. Provision could bo made that heads of departmentfl receiving over the stipulated weekly wage should not bo entitled to overtime payment. The Court would then amend bho award accordingly.