WITHIN RIGHTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1938, Page 13

WITHIN RIGHTS.

DRIVER'S DISMISSAL.

BAKERY DISPUTE FINDING.

EMPLOYER'S ACT JUSTIFIED

That the employer was clearly justified in exercising his right to dismiss the driver over whom a dispute arose at the bakery of G. K. Mathieson, Limited. Mount Eden, early this month, was the opinion expressed in the decision of the special tribunal set up by the Minister of Labour, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, to consider the case. The tribunal, comprising Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M., of Hamilton (chairman),! Mr. W. Newton, of Wellington, formerly Secretary of Labour, and Mr. S. Tyson, of Auckland, a former inspector of factories, spent the whole of yesterday in considering the evidence, and the finding, a voluminous one, was released late last night. In its decision the tribunal stated that it had been asked to consider whether the employer was justified in dismissing the driver concerned. After traversing the evidence in detail the tribunal, in referring to witnesses for the employer, said: "We observed these witnesses carefully, and, after due consideration, consider that we have no reason to disbelieve their evidence,' and we are forced to the conclusion that the reason for the driver's dismissal was the careless and unsatisfactory way in which he was carrying out his duties", and that his conduct with regard thereto was detrimental to his employer's interests. "Pure Assumption." "We are further of opinion from the evidence that the driver's discrepancies in regard to cash and bread were due to his. neglect and carelessness, and were not due to any defect in the system. With regard to the allegation that he was dismissed for calling the meeting of drivers, there was no evidence whatever to substantiate this, and the allegation appeared to us to be based on pure assumption." The tribunal further considered that there was no evidence to establish the allegation that time-sheets had been falsified. Members were not unmindful that two or three witnesses said that they had been handed back time-sheets by the foreman and told to fill them in according to the provisions of the 44hour week. The impression members gained from these statements was not that they had been told to falsify their sheets, but that the times shown were queried "In dismissing the driver concerned, Mathieson acted strictly within his rights and within the provisions of the award, and, to that extent, was clearlv justified in exercising his right." Ground For Dismissal. The tribunal added that it was also a well-established principle of the law of master and servant that negligence, incompetence or conduct which mi<dit seriously injure the master's bushfess constituted good grounds for dismissing the servant without notice, particularly if the conduct complained of was habitual. / The tribunal said it could not "ive any real weight to the statement handed in by Mr. Matthews and si-med by 57 customers formerly served bv the* dismissed driver stating that they were satisfied by the service he had given them. It was easy to obtain such documents, and no opportunity was afforded to the employer to check it or crossexamine upon it. Nor could it outweigh the positive evidence placed before the tribunal The document might also be tainted by other interests of the driver to which some reference had been made in the evidence.