TIMBER-YARD WORKERS

Evening Star, Issue 22891, 24 February 1938, Page 13

TIMBER-YARD WORKERS

QUESTION OF STATUS FULL COURT TO DECIDE [Pee United Pres* Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, • February 24. Emphasising the far-reaching effects his decision on the case would have, Mr Justice Northcroft, after hearing the appeal of Charles Edward Otley, manager of C. E. Otley Ltd., ■_ against his conviction in the Magistrate’s Court for a breach of the Factory Act, suggested to counsel it might be advisable to refer the case to the adjudication of the Full Court, which would be sitting in Wellington shortly. Appellant was convicted and fined £2 by Mr Levvey, S.M., for a breach of the Factory Amendment Act, 1936, section 14, in that being the occupier of a factory he failed to pay timber stackers and yard labourers for the Labour Day holiday. He how appealed against this conviction. If counsel desired his decision he would take time to consider it, His Honour said, but a more binding decision than the opinion of one judge might be preferable. The question at issue amounted to whether an open space could be'deemed to be a factory within the .meaning and scope of the Factories Act by reason of the activities carried on there. If such was the case then the operatioh of threshing mills and other agricultural machinery might possibly make a farmer’s paddock a factory under the Act. After the court had adjourned to enable counsel to discuss His Honour’s suggestion, they informed him they had /agreed to submit the case to the Full Court.