TIMBER STACKERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 April 1938, Page 8

TIMBER STACKERS

NOT FACTORY WORKERS. FULL COURT ALLOWS APPEAL FROM MAGISTRATE. WELLINGTON, April 29. The question of whether timber’ stackers can be classed as factory workers was answered by the Full Court, when it delivered judgment this morning in the case of Charles Edward Otley, of Christchurch v. Sydney William Armstrong, of Christchurch, inspector of factories. The appellant, the manager of C. E. Otley, Ltd., of Christchurch, was convicted and fined £2 by Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M., of Christchurch, for a breach of Section 14 of the Factories Amendment Act, 1936, in that, being the owner of a factory, he failed to pay certain timber stackers for a certain statutory holiday. The appeal was then taken to the Supreme Court and argued before the Full Court. The question for determination was whether certain timber stackers working in an open space in a timber yard were workers in a factory within the meaning of that term as defined by the Factories Act. By its judgment, the full Court held that on the particular facts of the case, the workers in question were not employed in a factory, with the result that the appeal was allowed and the conviction of appellant was quashed.