WORKERS’ HOLIDAYS

Grey River Argus, 18 December 1943, Page 7

WORKERS’ HOLIDAYS

The Government has announced that where union awards do not provide for paid annual leave for employees, a, rest period of five days, with pay, shall he observed this Christmas. > This provision was first conceded to the employees of three engineering establishments in Wellington following a brief stoppage of work to demand a fortnight’s paid holiday. The award under which these workers were employed did not provide for any paid annual leave, and furthermore, the statutory holidajos for which they were entitled to payment, fell on non-working days, Tn addition to granting a five-day holiday this year, the Government has promised to introduce, to the House in the New Year the Holidays with Pay Bill which, despite innumerable representations by the trade unions, has been shelved year after year. I While the few days holiday prescribed in the new regulation will be accepted with a certain amount of gratifi3ation by the workers whom it benefits, it will not remove, not only allay, the dissatisfaction which exists on the matter of paid annual leave. It would have been more satisfying to the workers if the principles of the Holidays with Pay Bill had been promulgated pending the passage of the Bill. As it is, it is probable that quite a few disputes between employers and employees will occur over the scope of the regulation, differences of opinion already Being apparent. The Government’s promise that legislation dealing with holidays will be finalised in the coming year is welcome news. It has always been something of a mystery why Arbitration Courts should differentiate so widely between sections of workers on the matter of annual leave. Some , workers were awarded paid holidays of varying lengths—others received none. Yet no-one can deny all workers are morally entitled to a holiday after a year of toil-—-and without a financially-crippling loss of pay. If some workers are entitled to a longer holiday than others then this must be based on the general conditions under which they work, and not on the whims of Arbitration Court judges. While it is pleasing to observe that the Government has at last been persuaded to deal with this matter in time to prevent thousands of workers from losing again this year a holiday with pay, the Holidays with Pay Bill must continue lo be regarded as a.long-overdue piece of industrial' legislation. Not only should the Bill deal with annual leave but also with the observance of statutory holidays. Here again, some awards stipulate that a certain number of single days per year must be paid for, whether or not such days fall on a working day; other awards state that only where a statutory holiday falls on a working day can payment be claimed. . As a result, some workers will lose as many as five paid holidays this year owing to such days falling on nonworking days. Since uniformity on this matter is likewise very necessary if irritation is to be avoided, the Holidays with Pay Bill will not be adequate unless it covers this! position also, thereby removing entirely from the Arbitration Court the question of workers’ holidays.