FELT HAT WORKERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 150, 28 June 1938, Page 7

FELT HAT WORKERS

HOLIDAY DEMAND PAID ANNUAL LEAVE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, June 27. The question of the provision of annual leave on full pay for workers concerned in the Wellington and Otago felt hatters' industrial dispute o«cupied the Court of Arbitration this afternoon. Mr. Justice O'Regan presided, and Mr. W. Cecil Prime and Mr. A. L. Monteith were associated with him. Mr. J. Robinson presented the case for the union, and Mr. A, S. Cookson represented the employers. Mr. Robinson said the only matter in dispute was annual leave. Clause 3 (c) of the claims provided that each worker who had completed 12 months' service should be allowed annual leave on ten working days on full pay. A large proportion of the workers coming within the scope of this award comprised females. It was submitted that wherever possible paid annual leave should be allowed, and that such payment would not place too heavy a strain on the resources of the industries It was customary for most factories to close for a fortnight at Christmas, and if workers, particularly those who had to work for comparatively low wages throughout the year received no payment for that time, then their leave was not a holiday but a hardship. The question of holidays was one which the modern industrial system had neglected for too long, said Mr. Robinson. It could not be said that adequate provision for necessary periodical respite from work was made when the factory doors were locked against the workers and they were told that they were out of work and off the pay-sheet for a fortnight. It was gratifying, however, that in the past year employers had been showing that they recognised the reasonableness of granting paid annual leave. The 1937 volume of the Book of Awards recorded about 160 awards and agreements in which provision was made for paid annual leave, in most cases plus statutory holidays and also payment for overtime. In Dunedin it had been the custom to allow female employees paid annual leave, but last year the usual holidays were not paid for and the workers concerned felt that they had not been fairly treated. Mr. Cookson said employers were definitely opposed to the granting of annual leave on full pay, or the general principle that in a manufacturing industry it meant that payment must be made for a period of non-production, which would seriously increase manufacturing costs. Employers were already required to pay for eight statutory holidays, in addition to a substantial increase in the rate of pay of adult male workers. No annual leave was provided for in the northern industrial district award affecting the same industry, and made on December 20, 1937. There was keen competition between Auckland and Dunedin manufacturers, and it would be unfair to handicap the latter by placing upon them the additional burden of having to pay for annual leave. The court reserved its decision.