GISBORNE SHOP ASSISTANTS

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2732, 14 July 1925, Page 4

GISBORNE SHOP ASSISTANTS

A REPUDIATED AGREEMENT. [Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, Last Night. Arising from an agreement reached before the Conciliation Court on the Gisborne Shopkeepers’ Award, over which a. technical difficulty had arisen, the Arbitration Court was asked to add certain parties to the award. Mr. B. S. Hammond said that when tho closing hour for the weekly halfholiday was discussed at the Conciliation Council the employers did not want the closing hour fixed at 12.30 p.m., because it was possible the halfholiday in Gisborne might some Dm* 3 be changed from Thursday, as at present to Saturday. The employers’ representatives, however, promised that so long as Thursday remained, twelve o’clock would be observed as tho closing hour. The Union representatives had agreed, but they were going back on it now.

Mr. Hammond also touched on the question of wages and holidays, as agreed to at the Conciliation Council, but which had since been repudiated by the Union. He submitted that the whole merits of the case were with the employers. Mr. Croskcry said he failed to find any reference showing where the Court had done what Mr. Hammond asked under section 94 of the Shops and Offices Act. He knew nothing about the agreement till July, when ho received a copy of the agreement and he considered t,he Union had made a mistake. The Gisborne Union now knew it would be better off under a Dominion award. The Court reserved its decision.