BASIC WAGE AND THE COST OF LIVING

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 105, 27 January 1940, Page 13

BASIC WAGE AND THE COST OF LIVING

« Additional Pay For Special Duties MAGISTRATE’S DECISION By Telegraph—Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, January 26. Whether additional pay for special duties for a man earning the basic wage should be added to the basic wage or be deemed to be ’included within it was discussed at some length in a reserved decision given in the Magistrates’ Court by Mr. Reid, S.M. The point turned largely on whether the basic wage was based solely on the cost of living, without taking into account special work done or special qualifications. The Labour Department asked for two penalties of £lO from Frascati, Ltd., tea-room proprietors, represented by Mr. E. W. Reeves, alleging failure to pay employees a special sum each week for special work performed.

The basis of the claims was that the firm had employed H. Gough and H. Inns as kitchen hands, whose duties included attending to the boiler, and had failed to pay them 5/- weekly extra for this work as provided in the New Zealand Tea Room and Restaurant Employees’ Award. Mr. S. E. McGregor, for the department, suggested that this sum should be paid in addition to the basic wage received by the two workers. The basic wage was the minimum rate for adult workers, and he claimed that if it were to include other payments foi; special duties the whole principle of fixing the basic wage would be undermined. Claims By Defence. The defence opposed this interpretation of the legislation, submitting that the basic rate was the maximum rate for workers who, if not adults, would be receiving a total wage, including extras, of less than the basic sum. The judgment said: “Mr. Reeves submits that the (basic wage is based solely on the cost of living irrespective of what the qualifications of the worker are or the value of services rendered. In the main this is correct, for in making the order fixing the basic wage the court says at one point: ‘The section thus requires the Court in fixing a basic rate of wage to have regard to the general economic and financial conditions affecting trade and industry in New Zealand and the cost of living.’

“I emphasize the words ‘have regard to,’ and if the general economic and financial conditions and cost of living were the sole factors to be considered in determining the basic wage I would have expected the Court to have used words of a stronger connotation than the words ‘have regard to.’ Fixing Basic Wage. In another part of its judgment, the Court says: “Sub-section 6 indicates that the basic wage to be fixed shall not be greater than would be appropriate to the least skilled and least remunerative type of work covered or likely to be covered by the award or industrial agreement.

“In my view the effect of the order fixing the basic wage is that in cases where the minimum rates of pay for an adult worker under an award is less than the basic wage, ‘ then the award must be read as if the amount fixed as the basic wage had been substituted for the amount fixed as the minimum rate of pay under the award. In so far, of course, as adult workers are concerned this award under consideration here fixes the minimum rate of pay for the men in question at £2 12/6 a week, plus 5/- a week extra for attending to the boiler. Decision For Plaintiff. “What is 5/- a week extra to? In my view it is extra to the minimum rates of wages, and is given because tiie worker is called on to perform a task that may be dirty or unpleasant and probably hard on clothing. I hold that plaintiff’s case is established, but as I have come to this decision with some hesitation —for a strong case can be, and in fact was, made out for the adoption of the construction placed on the award by the defendant company— I consider it not a case for more than the nominal penalty and plaintiff will have judgment for 10/-.”