CHEESE AND BUTTER FACTORIES

Evening Star, Issue 22685, 26 June 1937, Page 21

CHEESE AND BUTTER FACTORIES

INTERPRETATION OF EMPLOYEES’ AWARD APPEAL FROM COMMISSIONER'S DECISION* UPHELD Judgment has been delivered by His Honour Mr Justice O’Regan in_ the matter of an appeal from the decision of the Conciliation Commissioner respecting the interpretation of a clause in the Otago and Southland Cheese and Butter Factories Employees’ Award. The judgment is as follows: “ This is an appeal from the decision of the Conciliation Commissioner, given pursuant to clause 18 of the award. The clause in dispute is: ‘2 (4). Where in a cheese factory _a sufficient quantity of whey butter is made to require the substantial employment (more - than half time) of an assistant, such assistant shall be paid the wages provided for a first assistant.’ The point in dispute is at what stage the making of whey butter commences. “ It is to be noted that in a previous award dealing with the same point, the relevant clause was: ‘Where cheese factory assistants are employed so that their duties include butter making, with or without whey skimming, the rate of wages shall be that of a second assistant in that factory.’ “ In some cheese factories whey butter is made, but in all cheese factories, whether whey butter is made or not, certain operations are common to both. In the absence of any specific definition of the operations comprising the making of whey butter, it is reasonable to conclude that the making of whey butter commences at the point when the factory in which whey butter is not made ceases operations. “ In the clause under consideration, the words ‘ with or without whey skimming,’ have been omitted, and w T o are satisfied that the effect is to alter the meaning accordingly. Wo hold that, for the purposes of the clause, the making of whey butter commences from the receipt of the whey cream. Accordingly" the appeal is allowed.”