Court rules in worker’s favour

Press, 27 October 1982, Page 6

Court rules in worker’s favour

PA Wellington The Arbitration Court has ruled that shop workers doing the same job at the same time must get the same pay. The Court reached this conclusion in a case involving a Mrs P. Weir, who went to work at the Lower Hutt supermarket of Woolworths at 12.30 p.m. on a Saturday in 1981.

Her work colleagues were on double rates from the time they started when the shop opened for business at 8.30 a.m.

But when Mrs Weir joined them to refill shelves after the shop closed at 12.30 p.m., she was paid only at time-and-a-half for the first three

hours and double time for the remaining hour.

Woolworths had interpreted the award to mean that Mrs Weir could be paid at the lower rate because she w’as not employed when the shop was open for business. The Shop Employees’ Union submitted that this was not fair and that it resulted from an incorrect interpretation of the award.

It asked the Court to award a $5OO penalty and make up Mrs Weir's wages in what it described to the Court as a test case. The Court found in favour of the union and asked the company to make up Mrs Weir’s wages, but it did not impose the penalty sought by the union.