RACE MEETING CATERING

Evening Star, Issue 22718, 4 August 1937, Page 2

RACE MEETING CATERING

BREACH OF AWARD CLAIMED ISJ RACECOURSE THE FIRM'S PREMISES! [Per Usited Press Association.] HAMILTON, August 3. The interpretation of the New Zealand Tea Rooms and Restaurant Employees’ award, 1936, was questioned in the Magistrate’s Court at Hamilton today, when the Labour Department claimed a penalty of £lO against Adams and Sons, caterers, of Auckland, for an alleged breach of the award in that the firm underpaid a casual pantrymaid at the Te Rapa race meeting on February 20. A further claim for a penalty of £lO was brought on the grounds that the defendant failed to pay travelling time to the pantrymaid. . The defence submitted that the award was anomalous, and desired an early darificatipn of the position. An alteration to the interpretation as at present ;uriderstood by all caterers in New Zealand would mean that thonsandp of pounds would have to be paid in back wages; and, further, until a definite ruling was obtained no company could tender'' for race meetings with any degree of safety for fear that a big loss would he made after the court’s decision. The dispute mainly concerned clauses 7 and 8 of the award, which detailed the different rates of wages for casual employees engaged on a firm’s premises or away from them. The defendant submitted that his firm had only _ a depot at Auckland, where no cooking was done, whereas plant was kept at each racecourse, constituting the firm’s premises. The Labour Department did not agree with this contention, but admitted that ;the award was ambiguous. _ The Magistrate reserved his decision.