ASSISTANT'S STATUS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 11

ASSISTANT'S STATUS

BROAD DEFINITION

SHOPS AND OFFICES ACT

Upholding the submission of Mr. F. W. Ashby, Inspectpr of Factories, that it was not necessary for the Depart ment to prove a person must be employed substantially as a shop-assistant to be entitled to the benefits of the Shops and Offices Act, Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M., today delivered judgment .in the Magistrate's Court in the case, taken by the Inspector of Factories against James Herri'ott Syrhonds.' . The case is the first of its kind to be decided, and has an important bearing on the conduct of small shops'. • " '

The defendant was charged on two informations, that,-being the occupier of a shop .within the meaning of .the Act and its amendments, he employed a shop assistant, Caroline Emily -Manly, and failed to -pay her at not less than the prescribed rate; and that he failed to keep in prescribed form a wages and time book.

It was proved; said the Magistrate, that Miss Manly had experience. as a shop assistant in fruit and confectionery and bakery and tearoom shops since 1928, and that the defendant, who knew that she had had previous 'experience in shops, engaged her to keep house-for him and to' assist".in : the managemenf'of the' shop.- =On certain half-days of the week she kept the shop ■for"him during his absence,"ahd''at odd times she 'helped him in the "shop when he was busier than usual. :

"The expression 'shop assistant' is defined in the Shops and Offices Act, 1921-22, as .'any person who is employed by the occupier of a shop in connection with the business of a shop, etc.,'" said the Magistrate. "It will be seen that this definition is very wide in its terms, and in my opinion covers any person employed in connection with the business of a shop. The question I have to decide is: 'Is a person employed in a shop for certain half-days in each week and at other odd times helping the shopkeeper a shop assistant within the meaning of the Act,' even if her principal occupation is keeping house for the said shopkeeper?' . .

"I notice that in the English Act, the expression 'shop assistant' in the Shops Act, 1912,: means ' 'any" person wholly or mainly employed in a shop in connection with the serving of customers or the receipt of orders or the dispatch of goods.' The words 'wholly or mainly employed' are not found in the .New Zealand Act, and I think have been left out intentionally. This being so, our definition is much wider than that contained in the English Act. The Legislature would, hav^ found it an easy matter to have qualified the words in our Act had if desired to do so. I am' of the opinion that Miss Manly was a shop assistant within the meaning of tha Shops and Offices Act, 1921-22, and being of that opinion I can come" to no other conclusion than that a breach of the Statute has been committed.

"The defendant will therefore be convicted on each charge, and will, under all the circumstances, be ordered to pay costs only."