PAYMENT FOR HOLIDAY

Evening Star, Issue 19758, 7 January 1928, Page 11

PAYMENT FOR HOLIDAY

BISCUIT AND CONFECTIONERY WORKERS ABITRATiON COURT DECISION The Arbitration Court has filed its decision in the case of an application by the employers to amend the Otago and Southland biscuit and confectionery employees’ award. The court has ordered as follows; — 1. That clause 6 of the said award shall be deleted and the following clause substituted therefor: —“ (i (a) The following shall bo the recognised holidays Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, January 2, Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Monday, Labor Day, and Sovereign’s Birthday. (b) For work done on Sundays and holidays double time rates shall be paid. (c) No deduction shall be made from the wages of any worker in respect of the following holidays—viz.: Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Labor Day, and the birthday of the reigning Sovereign. When Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, or the Sovereign’s Birthday falls on a Sunday the holiday shall be deemed to fall on the next succeeding Monday. The provisions of this sub-clause shall not apply in respect of any other holidays.” 2. That this order shall be deemed to have' operated and taken effect as from the date of coming into operation of tho said award. A memorandum states: “The reconimendations of the Conciliation Council provided that the nine holidays specified in clause 6 (a) should be ‘paid’ holidays. An application was made by the employers to have the clause amended, on the ground that the recommendations of the Conciliation Council did not correctly embody the agreement arrived at, which was that the general question of holidays was to be referred to the court. The court is satisfied that a mistake was made in tho recommendation, though there is some evidence of the existence of a general impression that Holidays were to be paid for. The. former award operated only in the Utago and Southland industrial district, in which it was not customary to pay for holidays. Tho present award operates in the northern industrial district as well as in the Otago and Southland industrial district, and the court has been informed that the practice in the northern industrial district has been to pay for all or some holidays, if the court had renewed tho clause as it stood- in the expired Otago and Southland award, there would have been a difficulty in interpreting it, for the two’districts are now to be treated as one, and there would no longer be a generally-recognised custom in the combined district that holidays were not to be paid for. It is unusual to provide for payment for holidays in a manufacturing industry, except to tlie extent provided for by tho Factories Act, 1921-22; but the court in this case considers that, in the exceptional circumstances existing, it should provide for payment to all workers for the six holidays specified in section 35 of the Factories Act, 1921-22. It is to bo clearly understood that the court is not establishing a precedent,. but_ has been actuated by considerations arising from tho conflict of customs in the two districts concerned. It has to bo borne in mind also that a. weekly , wage is provided for in this award, and that a weekly wage is not generally subject to deductions for holidays unless a wellrecognised custom to the contrary is in existence in the area in which the award operates. “ Mr Scott is of the opinion that the present award should have provided for the two districts being permitted to observe their respective customs; but tho original counter-claims of the employers did not suggest any variation

as between the northern industrial district and the Otago and Southland industrial district, and in any event the practice of the northern industrial district was by no means uniform. In these circumstances the majority of the court is of the opinion that a general rule should be formulated in the present award, so as to avoid all possibility of misinterpretation and confusion.” The disenting opinion of Mr Scott states: “I cannot agree to any departure from an age-long established principle, as has been done in this case. In all the manufacturing trades wages have never been paid for holidays under the awards of the court if no work was done on those days, excepting the six statutory holidays as • prescribed for women and boys under the Factories Act. To depart from the principle is to add a further tax on our already overburdened industries, many of which cannot now compete with the imported article manufactured under vastly different conditions to those existing in New Zealand.”