AWARD OR STATUTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12663, 17 September 1904, Page 7

AWARD OR STATUTE.

; IMPORTANT DECISION. ! [BY TELEGRAPH. CORRESPONDENT.] ! Wellington, Friday. A case, in which it was held that an award of the Arbitration Court is in conflict with the statute law, was decided by Dr. McArthur, S.M., in the Wellington Police Court to-day. Gilbert Christenscn, hairdresser and tobacconist, was charged, at the instance of Mr. Jas. Shanaghau, inspector of factories, with having employed an assistant under 18 years of age for more than nine hours and a-half on a certain day. Hie Worship said defendant had only started as an employer some two months ago. There was hi existence an industrial agreement made in pursuance of the Industrial and Arbitration Act, 1900. between the Wellington Hairdressers' Assistants' Industrial Union of Workers and the employers. This industrial agreement was dated August 22, 1903, to August 21, 1905, both day« friclufjive. The defendant, who was not a party to the agreement, was of the irripreseion that he could work under it. Section 12 of the. Shops and Shop Assistants Act, 1894, provided that a. woman or a person under 18 years of age shall not work for hire or maintenance in or about any shop, nor at any work in connection with the shop, for ,i longer period than 52 hours, excluding meal times, in any one week, or for a longer period than nine hours and a-half, excluding meal times, in any one day, except on one day in each week, when 11 hours and a-half's work may be none. Clause 2of the industrial agreement referred to provided that the recognised hours of work of hamiressers' assistants shall be 55 hours per week. This was three hours longer each week than the statute allowed persons under 18 years of age to be engaged. His Worship was of opinion that it was contrary to the statute to employ persons under 18 years of age for more than nine hours and a-half on any one day, except on one day each week, when they may be employed for 11 hours and ahalf, and to exceed a total of 52 hours' work for the week. If any clause in any industrial agreement contravenes section 12 of the Shops and Shop Assistants Act. that clause was ultra vires and void, in so far as it contravenes the statute. Defendant must be convicted, but as, in His Worship's opinion, he acted under a. misapprehension, no costs would be allowed.