ALLEGED BREACH OF AN AWARD

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 43, 19 February 1917, Page 2

ALLEGED BREACH OF AN AWARD

AND A AVAR BONUS.

(BY TELEGRAPH,—PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

AUCKLAND, 17th February. ■ An opinion was delivered in the Supreme Court in a case set down from the Magistrate's Court, in which tho inspector of awards proceeded against the , Auckland Gas Company to recover a, penalty for an alleged breach of the amendment to the Northern District engineers' award.

The case as set out in the' Lower Court was that the company, during the period between 21st August and 11th November, 1916, employed an engineer And failed to pay the war bonus of Id per hour in addition to wages paid as provided'by clause 1 (a) and (b) of the award. It was admitted that both before and after 30th June, 1915, when the company was made a party to the award, the ordinary week's work consisted of 47 hours, the worker being credited with having worked 48 hours, for which he received £3 65.. After the order of "the Court came into operation in August, 1916,-the company paid the worker for tho actual hours worked at the rate of Is 4Jfd per hour, plus the war bonus of Id per hour, which resulted in his receiving (including the bonus) £3 8s 7d for 39 hours worked. The evidence .for the company was that it had been the custom for years to pay for 47 hours actually worked, and give the equivalent of the extra hour's work as •a bonus. When the award was made it was found thero was do increaso in the maximum rate of pay already paid, namely, Is 4£d 2)er hour for 47 hours. The company decided, therefore, to still give 61io equivalent of an extra hour as a. gratuity. The inspector contended that the war bonus should have been paid in addition to wages paid, as in August, 1916, and that the action of the company had resulted in the workers receiving Is 4d less per week of 47 hours than they were entitled to.

The opinion of the Court was that for tho purposes'of the award the wages paid prior to August, 1916, must be deemed to have been £3 6s per -week of 47 hours. The man was really paid wages at the rate of nearly Is 5d per hour for the time actually worked. In the absence, of proof that workers had acknowledged ..that payment for the hour not- actually worked was a bonus or gratuity, the amount paid for such hour, in accordance with long-established custom, would be reasonably regarded as part of the wages. The' Court was of opinion that the contention of ..the. inspector was correct.