HARBOUR BOARD TO PAY

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 April 1943, Page 2

HARBOUR BOARD TO PAY

OVERTIME DISPUTE.

CHRISTCHURCH, April 20. “In the course of these proceedings counsel have ranged over a wide field, but it seems reasonable by saying, in military phraseology, that this is a minor outpost affair in a major strategic engagement,” said Mr. F. F. Reid, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court to-day. The matter before him was a claim by the Inspector of Awards for a penalty of £lOO for an alleged breach of the Harbour Board’s Employees’ Award by the Lyttelton Harbour Board. Counsel intimated the claims concerned approximated between £40,000 and £50,000. It was alleged that on January 1, 1943, the Board had employed a boatman, and had failed to pay him overtime for work on a statutory holiday. “It is true that the matter touches on claims involving large sums of money,” said the Magistrate. But in this particular case, he said, the worker had been paid above the award rate of wages, and if he was dissatisfied he had his own remedy. The Board was not a private corporation trading for gain: it was the custodian only over funds which it controlled and was working for the good of the community as a whole. “But there is a ruling from the Arbitration Court that on this particular day the man should have been paid double rates,” said Mr. Reid. “If it were a private employer the penalty would be substantial, but if I impose a substantial penalty here I am simply taking public money from one pocket and putting it into another. It is all public money and belongs to the people.” The Magistrate entered judgment for the plaintiff for £lO.