FREEZING WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 128, 23 February 1939, Page 11

FREEZING WORKERS

Interpretation Of Clause In Award MAGISTRATE’S DECISION Reserved decision on an application by the inspector of awards for an interpretation of a clause in the New Zealand (except Westland) freezing workers’ award lias been given by the magistrate of the Industrial Court, Mr. J. A. Gilmour. The clause in the award related to the rate of pay for freezing and chamber hands an'd was: Workers employed in handling produce in freezing rooms and cold stores including “running-in” and “loading-out,” whether into trucks, wagons or lighters, per hour, 2/9. The question asked of the court was: Does chilled beef come within the category of handling produce in freezing rooms and cold store an'd wages therefore payable at the rate of 2/9 an hour? The reserved judgment stated : It was agreed by both sides that the question for determination turned on the meaning of the term "cold stores,” and that the whole question was one of temperature. The award contains no definition of the term. The workers maintain that any room which provides facilities for hol'ding produce at a temperature lower than freezing point must be regarded as a cold store. On the other hand the employers say that a cold store has always been treated by them us a place where produce is held at a temperature ranging from lOdeg. to J2deg. Apart from the operations already mentioned the whole process of chilling at the works consists merely in holding the beef in chambers, after killing and 'dressing, at a set temperature till it is placed aboard ship, where it is treated with carbon dioxide gas; and to that extent the chambers may properly be regarded, I think, as places for storing produce. But are they cold stores for the purposes of the award? The word “cold” has a relative meaning, and it is difficult to draw any arbitrary line, but in view of the fact that Hie temperature in the chambers is below freezing point, I feel constrained to adopt the view contended for by the union and to hold that the workers concerned are “employed in handling produce in . . . cold stores.”