PAYMENT OF SHED HANDS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 69, 23 March 1931, Page 7

PAYMENT OF SHED HANDS

WEEKLY OR HOURLY RATES

A question which was put to the Arbitration Court last week arising out of the Wellington Shearers and Shed Hands' Award asked whether the employer or the employees should determine the basis o£ payment, by the week'or by the hour. The opinion of the Court, which has just been delivered, states that the award provides as alternatives weekly and hourly rates. It is desirable that an agreement should be made, before the employment is entered into, as to whether the weekly or the hourly rates are to apply. •The employer has the right to elect which alternative he will select; and the employees have the right to say whether they will accept it. Once .the agreement is made, it is binding until the work covered by it is completed, or the contract lawfully determined. . , , Assuming that no agreement is made, tne question as to whether the rate of payment is to be weekly or hourly is to be determined by the evidence available in the particular case. . . . Where there is no agreement, it is not for either the employer or the employees to say, during, or at the completion of the work, whether the rate shall be weekly or hourly; and any dispute as to the rate must be settled in accordance with the evidence available, even if the only evidence is that; of the general custom prevailing in similar sheds in the district. Another question was whether or not the arrangement made for payment at the commencement of the work should continue until the shed or run of sheds cuts out. The Court's opinion is as follows: — In the case of a number of sheds controlled by one employer, if the agreement is made, for one shed only, a fresh agreement must be made for the remaining sheds, but a comprehensive agreement may be made covering two or more sheds. In the absence of any provision in such an agreement, limiting the prescribed method of payment to one shed only, it will be presumed that the agreed method will applyto all sheds. .This rule applies in the case of contractors as well as in that of sheep owners.