HOLIDAY PAY FOR QUARTZ MINERS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23129, 19 September 1940, Page 8

HOLIDAY PAY FOR QUARTZ MINERS

DECISION RESERVED IN TEST CASE [From Our Own Reporter.] EEEFTON, September 18. Decision wr.s reserved to-day at a sitting/ of the Industrial Magistrate’s Court at Reefton at which Mr J. A. Gilmour, S.M., as delegate of the Arbitration Court, heard a case in which Blackwater Mines, Ltd. (Mr Morgan), were charged by the Inspector of Factories (Mr Rawlins) with a breach ,of the Blackwater Mines, Ltd., quartz mine award. Mr Rawlins said that clause 7 of the award, which covered holiday pay, had not been observed by the company in the employment of' a miner named Perks. As holiday pay for the industry was new the case was a test one. The worker had been employed from February, 1939, to February, ,1940. and had since left the company’s employ. He submitted fiiat the clause covering holiday pay was identical with that included in the State Coal Miners Award, and the Unregistered Coal Miners’ Agreement concerning holiday pay. The clause read) "That after 12 months’ continuous service , with the same company in any one year an employee became entitled to holiday pay.” The company ruled that the clause meant to conyey that the period should cover, a calendar year from January to December. He submitted that the clause did not suggest a calendar year. Provision was made in the clause for the dates . on - which annual holidays could be taken and for annual holidays for periods of a year which entitled a worker to receive one day for every 20 days’, work in one year after he was for, a certajn period in the company’s employ. Should the Court interpret this clause as covering a calendar year the interpretation would be in direct variance to the holiday periods as covered by other awards. ' Mr Morgan, for the company, held that the purpose of the clause was clear, and that the worker should, , after a calendar year of service in the company’s employ, receive holiday pay. Provision was made to cover the payment of holiday pay for periods of a year after a worker had been em- ■ ployed by the company for a certain period.. The award distinctly stated that holiday pay be paid to the workmen on the last pay day before December 24, This showed that a calendar year of service was required to qualify for holiday pay.