AMBIGUOUS AWARD

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20262, 3 August 1937, Page 6

AMBIGUOUS AWARD

CATERERS AFFECTED. INTERPRETATION SOUGHT. CASUALS AT RACE MEETINGS. The Interpretation of the New Zealand Tea Rooms and Restaurant Employees’ Award, 1936, was questioned in the Magistrate’s Court, Hamilton, to-day, when the Labour Department (Mr. P. Molvor) claimed a £lO penalty against Messrs. Adams and Sons, caterers, of Auckland, for an alleged breach of the award in that the firm underpaid a casual pantrymald, Olive Myrtle Sanderson, at the Te Rapa race meeting on February 20. A further claim for a penalty of £lO was brought on the grounds that defendant failed to pay travelling time to Mrs. Sanderson. The defence submitted that the award was anomalous and desired an early clarification of the position. An alteration to the Interpretation as at present understood by all oaterera In New Zealand would mean that thousands of pounds would have to be paid In back wages and further, until a definite ruling was obtained, no company could tender for race meetings with any degree of eafety for fear that a big loss would be made after the onurt’s decision. The dispute mainly concerned clauses 7 and 8 of the award which detailed different rates of wages for casual employees engaged on the firm’s premises or away from them. Defendant submitted that as they had only a -depot at Auckland where no cooking was done, whereas the plant was kept at each racecourse, the racecourse was the firm’s premises. The Labour Department did not agree with this but admitted that the award was ambiguous. The magistrate’s decision was reserved.