BREACH OF TRAWLERS' AWARD

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 31 July 1911, Page 8

BREACH OF TRAWLERS' AWARD

DUNEDIN, July 30. In the. Magistrate's CourfTon Saturday, Mr Haselden, S.M., heard a case in which the Inspector of Awards sued the TJneeda Trawling Co. for £10 as a penalty for a breach of the Dunedin Trawlers' Award by employing ftour men more than 70 hours during the week ended May 12, and having failed to pay the prescribed overtime rates. The men were employed on the Waitangi and were paid for 70 hours that week, it being maintained by the Labor Department that they were entitled to be paid for 72 hours. During that week there was foq;gy weather, which curtailed the trawling. Mr J. C. Stephens,,, for the defence, said that in the exigencies of such a business a wide interpretation should be given to the clause allowing time to be deducted. Special circumstances, such as a breakdown of the machinery during the time the men were idle, might happen-, or the weather may prevent any trawling being done for days during the week, yet the men were pa*'d for the whole week.

The evidence showed that during the week the net was lost and the vessel "ot ashore for a time on Pulling Point. The case stands partly heard.