IMPORTANT REGULATIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 October 1939, Page 5

IMPORTANT REGULATIONS

—■' ■ -TREINSTATEMENT OF EMPLOYEES. (PEB PBEHB ASSOCIATION.! WELLINGTON. October 13. An Extraordinary Gazette, containing regulations having far-reaching consequences for employees who enlist. in the Dominion defence forces, either for overseas service or home defence, during Lite present, hostilities, and also their employers, has been published to-day. The most important section of the regulations, which are termed the “Occupational Re-establishment Emergency Regulations, 1938,” is that stating: “It shall be the duty of any employer, by whom a person accepted lor service in His Majesty’s Forces, whether in New Zealand or overseas, was employed when he was so accepted for service, to reinstate him in his employment at the termination of service, or during any period of leave from that service without pay, in an occupation and under conditions not less favourable to him than those which would have been applicable to him had he not been fjO accepted, including the benefit of conditions providing for increments in remuneration, such benefits to attach so as to entitle him to remuneration at. the time of reinstatement, at the rate which he would then have received had his employment, been continuous up to that time.” The regulations state that an employer who fails to comply with provisions of the above-mentioned clause commits an offence, and may be ordered to pay the person whom he has failed to reinstate, a sum not exceeding an amount equal to twelve weeks’ remuneration, or remuneration for the period of leave. The regulations also set out the provisions which may he used by employers in justifying their nonreinstatement of employees. 'These include failure by an employee to apply tor reinstatement within six months of lhe termination of his overseas service, or during any period of leave without pay, and also if an employee, having been offered reinstatement, fails without reasonable excuse to present, himself for employment at the time and place specified, or by reason of change of circumstances (other than the engagement of some other person to replace him). Employers will not be allowed to terminate the employment of employees for the purpose of evading the obligations imposed under these regulations, or in expectancy that an employee might be accepted for service in His Majesty’s Forces.

The regulations also make provision for employees where a contract of service is concerned, and are subject to the suspension of the Apprenticeship Emergency Regulations, 1939.