Court Rules On Women Employed On Meat Packing

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28606, 7 June 1958, Page 6

Court Rules On Women Employed On Meat Packing

The objection by the Canterbury Amalgamated Shop Assistants’ Union to women being permitted to package meats and edible offals has been upheld by the Arbitration Court. The objection was heard in Christchurch on May 23, and followed agreement on the provision of women for packaging between bacon workers and their employers in Conciliation Council during February. .The grounds for the objection were that the proposed operations did not come within the scope of the award; that the clause containing the provisions did not provide an equitable basis of trading between employers under the butchers’ award because of reduced rates of wages proposed for females employed on certain operations; that the operations were smallgoods man’s work and therefore under the butchers’ award; and that the clause undermined butchers’ award provisions. In a memorandum to the new award for bacon workers in Canterbury, Otago and Southland, issued yesterday, the Court examines the. membership rules of the interested unions of workers. “It seems clear to Us that a person employed as a small-goods man is not eligible for membership of the Canterbury Amalgamated Shop Assistants’ Union unless he meets the essential requirement that he is employed by the occupier of a shop in connexion with the business of a shop,’’ says the Court’s memorandum. “Membership of the Dunedin Operative Butchers’ Union and of the Southland Operative Butchers’ Union involves a similar requirement. “It was not established that the respondent employers in the dispute before the Court are occupiers of shops, consequently their employees are not by virtue of their employment eligible to be members of the Shop Assistants’ Union. “It follows that workers employed as small-goods men in bacon factories operated by the respondent employers are not covered by the South Island butchers’ award. “As we have already mentioned, it was also submitted that the operations under discussion

do not come within the baconcuring industry, which is the industry to which the award is proposed to apply. “It will be noted that eligibility for membership (of the Freezing Works and Related Trades Employees’ Union) is defined in terms of the occupations of workers and not of the business of the employer or the place of employment except in the case of shepherds and stockmen.

“It was contended on behalf of the applicant association that the operations under discussion, namely, the cutting off,, weighing, and wrapping of sausages, and the packaging of meat and edible offals brought the workers engaged thereon within the occupation of ‘bacon worker,’ for the reason that the work is being performed in a bacon factory, and therefore the operations form part of the baconcuring industry. It was also contended that small-goods men whilst employed in bacon factories are bacon workers. “It seems to us that the validity of these contentions is very much in doubt, and in view of the objection we have decided to omit . . . the words to which exception has been taken.

“We express the opinion that IT would be in the interests of all concerned if early steps were taken to seek amendments to the membership . rules of various interested unions of workers so that the scope of their coverage will be accurately defined and clearly understood.”