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Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 December 1941, Page 6

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HOURS OF LABOUR HOLIDAYS AND OVERTIME. STATEMENT BY MINISTER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A modification of the holiday and overtime provisions in the existing labour laws will be provided for in emergency orders which are to be gazetted immediately. These orders embody recommendations of the Industrial Emergency Council. The Minister of Labour, Mr Webb, said yesterday that it had been decided to modify the provisions of Acts, awards of the Court of Arbitration, industrial agreements, and voluntary agreements relating to the granting of statutory or special holidays, including annual holidays, to enable work to be performed on any of these holidays, provided a substituted day or days was granted within six months or an additional payment was made to the workers for each holiday not granted, at the full ordinary rate. Where the holidays provided for were required to be taken oi’ where granted during the Christmas and New Year period, these holidays must start not earlier than Christmas Day, and must end not later than January 4, and work must be resumed not later than January 5. Any balance of holidays that had not been taken on the resumption of work must be given at a later date, or payment made at the full ordinary rate. The new provisions provided for the calculating of n overtime on a daily basis, but the position of the workers was safeguarded by providing for the payment of double-time rates after a certain number of hours of overtime had been worked during the week.