Supreme Court WAGES CLAIM

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28699, 24 September 1958, Page 5

Supreme Court WAGES CLAIM

Judge Dismisses Appeal Non-suited in tbe Magistrate's Court last October in a wages claim against C. W. F. Hamilton and Company, Ltd., William Dudley Horne, a storeman, appealed unsuccessfully in the Supreme Court yesterday against the Magistrate’s decision. Horne, who had claimed that he was entitled to be paid at overtime rates for working an evening shift at the company’s factory, sought £lB6 in wages. The appeal was dismissed, by Mr Justice Haslam. Horne was employed by the company as a storeman from September 22, 1954 to July 29, 1955, said his counsel, Mr B. McClelland. He worked from 4 30 p.m. to 12.30 a.m. and as the remit of an agreement between the company and the union be was paid more than the normal rate but less than the overtime rate. The sole matter was whether he should fcave been paid overtime or not. The decision was important because it would affect other workers throughout New Zealand where awards containing no shift work clauses could be varied by agreement. Mr McClelland said it was not competent for anyone to contract out of the award and it was not legal for the company and the union to agree not to pay Horne overtime rates. Both the appellant and the respondent were bound by the storemen’s award and it was clear that Horne had been working outside the ordinary hours laid down by the award and should have been paid at overtime rates, said counsel. Mr R. A. Young, for the respondent company, submitted that Horne was not a storeman under the meaning of the award but should really be covered by the warehousemen’s award.

Horne was properly non-suited by the Magistrate because he had not. established that he was a storeman withih the definition of the award. He was an unskilled worker and if he had been paid overtime rates he would have been getting a wage in excess of that paid to skilled tradesmen working on the same shift, Mr Young said. The appellant was not entitled to get the benefit of the award if he had made a contract with his employer. The proper course had been adopted by the union and the company to reach a solution to the problem, Mr Young said.