CLOTHING FACTORY WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 12

CLOTHING FACTORY WORKERS

Paid Holidays At Christmas Time AGREEMENT AWAITS CONFIRMATION By Telegrupii—Cress Association. CHRISTCHURCH, December 9. Between 13,000 and 14,000 workers in clothing factories throughout New Zealand will this Christmas enjoy paid holidays in addition to statutory holidavs if tlie agreements reached at a conference in Christchurch are endorsed by provincial employers’ organizations and t rade unions. Wellington, Canterbury and Otago manufacturers have approved of tlie decisions and confirmation has yet to be obtained from tlie Auckland employers, who recently decided that they will not grant to workers an annual paid holiday of a week till tlie completion of 12 months employment from tlie date of the coming into effect of (lie clothing, shiit, white and silk, dressmaking and millinery awards, which became operative on June 30. All unions except. Otago had by this afternoon given their assent to the decisions. Once all employers and unions accept tlie conference agreement, the Court of Arbitration will be approachd to amend the award in terms of that agreement. The terms of the agreement are “an annual holiday of live days on full pay shall be given to ail workers, including apprentices, on the completion of each year of service, such holiday to be in addition to and by payment in conjunction witli Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day, except when otherwise arranged with Die union. In computing the yearly period broken time shall bo counted as time worked. For the purpose of this clause the first year of service shall be deemed to have begun on January 1. 1935. Workers who have terminated their employment before the introduction of the 1938 award shall not ‘bo entitled io holidays or payment in lieu thereof. If the employment of any worker is terminated by either party, for any reason other than by the employer for the misconduct of the worker, ‘before completion of the first year of service . . . . or at any time after the first year of service has been completed, a holiday of proportionate duration for the broken period served shall be given or ptlid for. Similarly, if a worker begins after January 1 in each year he or she shall be allowed or paid for only Hie holiday of proportionate duration.” / Tlie awards made by the Court provided for the first lime for a week’s paid holiday and the question of when the annual holiday under them takes place has been a strongly-contested joint, of issue. Unions have submitted to the Court in the past. that a worker is entitled to an annual holiday under a holiday clause in the award when he or she has completed 12 months’ service, irrespective of when the award became operative.