NOT REINSTATED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 153, 10 April 1941, Page 8

NOT REINSTATED

AFTER TERRITORIAL SERVICE.

MINISTER WARNS EMPLOYERS, (P A.) WELLINGTON, April 5). ‘‘‘Officers of my department have received a large number ol complaints that employers have jailed to reinstate in their former positions men who have recently completed their Territorial training,’’ said the Hon. P. O. "Webb (Alinister for Labour) to-night. “Under the Occupational Re-estab-lishment Regulations,’’ said the Alinister. “Territorial training is included under the heading military service. The regulations provide that a person who renders military service is to be reinstated in employment when lbs period of military service ends, or when lie is on leave without pay. His reinstatement must be under conditions not less favourable to him than be would have enjoyed if lbs employment had not been interrupted. This includes the benefit of any increments in pay to which lie would have been entitled. These provisions apply only to a worker employed for at least four weeks before enlisting or being called up. When a worker is reinstated he must not be dismissed within six months except under the conditions mentioned in the regulations.

“An employer who commits a. broach of these regulations is liable to imprisonment. for *! 2 months or a fine of £IOO, or both. To addition, lie may be required, to pay the employee improperly dismissed or not reinstated an amount not exceeding his pay for 12 weeks, or for the period of leave.

Possible Defences. (

‘lt is a defence for the employer to prove that application for reinstatement was not made within the prescribed period, a month in the ease of service in New Zealand after discharge, or during any period of leave, or that the worker failed without reasonable excuse to present himself for employment. An employer may also make the defence that, by reason of a change of circumstances, it is not reasonably practicable to reinstate the employee; but these circumstances do not include the fact that some other person was engaged to replace the former employee.

“In the ease of dismissal within six months of reinstatement, the employer must prove that the dismissal was for a reason not connected tvitli lbs obligations under the regulations. “I wo'uld especially remind employers that where a person has been employed to take the place of a worker rendering military service, and this covers Territorial training, employers should note that the onus is placed on them to bring themselves within tile defences set out in the regulations. I am instructing officers of mv department that- in every ease where a breach is considered to have been established they are to take steps to allow the courts to decide whether the employer has been justified in the action he took. “These regulations do not apply where contracts of apprenticeship are in operation, as these are dealt with under the suspension of apprenticeship emergency regulations, 1939. During military service a contract of apprenticeship is suspended, and for six months after, unless revived in accordance with the regulations A When an apprentice is discharged from military service he may give notice to his employer. in writing, that lie desires the contract to revive and be continued from the date of the notice, qitlier for a period fixed by the contract or for the expired term of lbs apprenticeship.”