IS HOLIDAY PAYMENT INTERPRETATION RIGHT?

Northern Advocate, 10 December 1937, Page 10

IS HOLIDAY PAYMENT INTERPRETATION RIGHT?

[Per Press Association.— -Copyright]

WELLINGTON, This Day

The recent interpretation by the Court of Arbitration of the Factories’ Act regarding holiday payments has been the subject of an inquiry by the advisory board of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation, which has issued the following statement:— “This interpretation requires that factory workers, if employed at any time in the fortnight ending on the day of the holiday, must be paid for Christinas Day, which falls on a Saturday, and for* Boxing Day, which falls on a Sunday, in addition to their week’s wages.

“We believe this was not the intention of Parliament when the law was passed, and that it is probably not even a correct interpretation of the law as it stands. We have, therefore, approached the Government and asked that the original intention of the legislation, as we understood it in 1936, and as expressed by the Department of Labour subsequently, should be given full effect to.

.“This intention is clearly expressed in the following extract from an official letter to the Department of Labour, written prior to the interpretation of the court: —

Department’s Attitude. “When a holiday occurs on a Saturday, the department does not insist ori payment being made to regular hands whose employment A from Monday to Friday in. each week. So long as in each week the worker receives his full week’s wages, we consider the Act has been complied with and that it is not necessary to pay him an extra day s wages merely by reason of the fact that the holiday in that particular instance as, for example, Boxing Day last, occurs on a Saturday.

“We also hope to have the opportunity of obtaining an interpretation of the law from the Supreme Court.

“Defer Payment.”

“Pending final decision of the question, the advisory board recommends all employers to withhold payment, this action to be entirely without prejudice to any rights the workers may ultimately be decided to have and which, in respect of Boxing Day, 1936, might be affected by effluxion of time. “The board wishes it to be clearly understood that the recommendation is only that payment should be deferred until the position has been finally cleared up. If the result is confirmation of the present interpretation, no workers should be prejudiced as to their right to payment through any technical advantage which might accrue to the employers because of the delay.”