FARM WORKERS’ WAGES

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23745, 17 September 1942, Page 6

FARM WORKERS’ WAGES

Sir—As we are now liable for rent for our housing, I would be glad of an answer to the following questions:— (1) Can the landlord, whether he be employer or not, take possession of a let property without an order of the Court? If so, what reasons must he have other than arrears in rent? (2) Is there any regulation governing the distance the dwelling is to be from stock houses or pens and the drainage therefrom? (3) What is the base on which the Arbitration Court makes the agricultural workers’ award?— Yours, etc., MARRIED FARM HAND. September 15,1942, [Mr R. T. Bailey, officer in charge, Labour Department, Christchurch, replies: “(1) If a legal tenancy has been created and the dwellinghouse comes within the scope of the Fair Rents Act, then the only way in which the landlord may obtain possession is by an order of a Stipendiary Magistrate, It should be understood, however, that where the house is provided as a, part of the ter. ,s of employment, then on the cessation of employment, the tenant would' be expected to vacate the premises. (2) The site of the accommodation shall be suitable for the purpose, shall be properly drained, shall be located at a sufficient distance from all animal pens, stables, sheds, or accumulations of refuse or offensive matter, and shall preferably be well sheltered and kept clear of all overgrowing vegetation. (3) The Court of Arbitration did not make the Agricultural Workers Act. This is an enactment passed by the General Assembly of New Zealand, and the recent increase In the rates of pay was agreed upon by representatives of the New Zealand Sheepowners’ Industrial Union of Employers, the N.Z. Agricultural and Related Farmers’ Industrial Union of Employers, and the N.Z. Workers’ Industrial Union of Workers.’’]