Suspension unlawful, Court finds

Press, 28 May 1981, Page 3

Suspension unlawful, Court finds

PA Wellington The suspension of a worker at Kinleith during a strike last year was unlawful, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday.

The Court — Mr Justice Cooke, Mr Justice McMullin, and Mr Justice Somers — dismissed an appeal by N.Z. Forest Products against an Arbitration Court finding in favour of the Woodpulp and Paper Workers’ Union and one of its members, a Mr Harniss.

In z February, 1980, maintenance unions at Kinleith went on strike, and certain workers, including Mr Harniss, w’ere suspended under section 128(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, the judgment said.

The section, empowers an employer to suspend workers not on strike.' -”! ■ The Arbitration Court had found that to a considerable degree the company had kept pulp and paper workers employed as long as it could.

“A section of this kind has to be applied in a practical way,” the Court of Appeal judgment added.

“If it can be foreseen that some normal work will be available, but that there will be less of it than usual because of the strike, it must be a question of fact and degree whether there will be enough normal work to make it reasonable to keep the worker on.

“We reject two extreme interpretations — on the one hand, that the unavailability of a small amount of normal work will be automatically enough to justify suspension, on the other hand that the availabiity of a small amount of normal work will be automatically enough to rule out suspension. "The case may well have been a borderline one on the facts. In these circumstances this Court should not disturb the decision of the Arbitration Court,” the judgment said.