A TECHNICAL BREACH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 197, 21 July 1937, Page 10

A TECHNICAL BREACH

EMPLOYER FINED A SHILLING. MAGISTRATE’S COMMENT. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, July 20 “Prosecutions such as this can do no good, but must only have the effect of aggravating employers and dispelling the feeling of friendliness that sometimes exists between employer and employee, as in this instance,” said Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., after hearing a prosecution in the Magistrate’s Court brought by the Inspector of Awards, (Mr H. S. Hurle) against Sidney Walter Mayer, butcher, Mount Eden Road, for committing a breach of the butchers’ award through failing to pay overtime.

Mr Hurle said he called at defendant’s shop on June 1 to investigate a complaint that two assistants often worked after the hour when the award compelled them to stop unless overtime was paid. He spent about a quarter of an hour in the shop, during which time little work was done, before the men prepared to leave the shop. When he returned to the shop on June 7 to inspect the time-book he found no overtime had been entered or payment made. - In reply to the Magistrate, the inspector said that the amount involved in each case Avas about Is 9d which, in a small shop, would amount to about 10s a week. With a large firm it might total as much as £SO a week if it was allowed to go on. Representing the defendant, Mr Newbery said that a happy spirit ruled between the employer and his assistants. There was iio strictness about the starting hour and employees were never loth to make up for any time they might have lost through being late.

After the evidence of one of the employees had been given to support counsel’s statement, the Magistrate said that had a proper investigation been made into the circumstances under which defendant’s business was conducted, an inspector of the department would never have instituted the prosecution. Apparently on one occasion there had been some laxity, but no injustice had been done to either of the workers. There had been a technical breach, however, and a penalty of one shilling was imposed.