"FULL WORKING WEEK"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1938, Page 11

"FULL WORKING WEEK"

DEFINITION WANTED

COLLIERY EMPLOYEES

BASIS OF COMPENSATION

I The definition of a- "full working week'' as applied to workers at the mines operated by Glen Afton Collieries, Ltd., in order to compute workers' compensation, was asked from the Court of Appeal today in cases stated by the Court of Arbitration. Although the Court was concerned primarily with words in one particular agreement, the words are to be found in similar agreements in both the North Island and South Island, and the interpretation is a matter of considerable importance. The question is whether the compensation given to an injured worker, who is normally working a five-day week but who can, and does occasionally, work on a Saturday, should be computed on a five-day week or a six-day week. The Court consisted of the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), Mr. Justice Callan, and Mr. Justice Northcroft. Two cases, brought as the extreme instances of Saturday work, were heard as one. The plaintiffs were J. Jenkins, a shiftman, and A. Wilkinson, a trucker, and the defendant, Glen Afton Collieries, Ltd. Mr. C. J. O'Regan appeared for the plaintiffs, and Mr. H. P. Richmond (Auckland) for the defendant. The workers' conditions of work are governed by the Northern Coal Mine Workers' Agreement, 1937, which says that the ordinary working time at all collieries shall be five days a week, but the management shall have the right to have any necessary development, repair, or maintenance work performed on Saturdays when such work cannot be conveniently carried out on other days, and when the employment of additional workers i to do the work on other days would not be justified, and such work shall be paid for at ordinary time rates. Wilkinson was injured on February 9, and Jenkins on January 24, and the compensation for both was computed on the basis of a five-day week. In the twelve months preceding Wilkinson's accident he was called upon once to work on a Saturday, and in the twelve months preceding Jenkins's accident Jenkins worked twenty-nine Saturdays. Both claimed1 that their compensation should be based on a six-day week. Mr. Richmond, opening the case by agreement, said the cases had been stated by the President of the Court of Arbitration because, although the points were in a narrow compass, Mr. Justice O'Regan considered the matter was of far-reaching importance and involved some difficulty of interpretation. While this particular case was concerned primarily with one agreement., the words were also to be found in similar agreements in ,both islands, i The only dispute wastne assessment of compensation, and the meaning of the words "full working week's earnings" in the Workers' Compensation Act. The miner carried on the production of coal on five days a week, j but the men could be called upon for I other work on Saturdays, at the ordinary rates of pay. The defendant said that Saturday work was either overtime, or, at any rate,<did not come within-the full work-1 ing week as defined in the agreement, said Mr. Richmond. The plaintiffs con- j tended that the mere right of the management to call upon the workers jto work on Saturdays, even if never exercised, still made Saturday one of the working days of the week —that was the full length of Mr. O'Regan's argument. The only difference in the cases was. that Wilkinson worked one Saturday only in the twelve months preceding his accident, and Jenkins worked twenty-nine Saturdays. The two. cases had been stated for the Court as being two extremes of Saturday employment. Mr. O'Regan contended that the full working week consisted of what the management could enforce if it so desired.