WAGES AND WAR BONUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17337, 8 December 1919, Page 6

WAGES AND WAR BONUS.

COMPUTATION OF OVERTIME. APPLICATION FOR RULING. [BY TELEGRAPH— CORRESPONDENT.J CHKISTCHURCH. Saturday. A question which the Arbitration Court was asked to decide was whether a worker has a right to expect his war bonus to be included in "wages" for the purpose of computing overtime. This question was raised by employees under 1 seven awards Canterbury engineers, Canterbury metal workers' assistants, Canterbury tinsmiths and sheet metal workers, Canterbury electrical workers, united boilermakers, Canterbury range workers, and Canterbury motor mechanics. Mr. Renn conducted the case for the employees and Mr. Cooper for the employers. Mr. Renn said that recently in Auckland the Court, when asked to give an interpretation, ruled that bonus moneys were not to be taken into account for the purpose of computing overtime. At the same time the Court had instructed that the union should apply for amendment at the next sitting of the Court. That was what the unions were now doing. His Honor : Where did you get that? Is it in the records of the Court? Mr. Renn said he was quoting from a letter from Auckland. His Honor said that he hardly thought the letter put the position fairly so far as the Court was concerned. The impression conveyed in the letter was not that which the Court had intended to convey, The wage and bonus were separate. The wage was fixed, the bonus was given in consideration of the increase in the cost of living, and varied up or down with the rise or fall in the cost of living. Mr. Renn said that until the Court gave its interpretation it had been the custom to pay overtime on a flat rate, plus, the war bonus, and the position now was that with increased rates of overtime workers were receiving little or no more than under the old rate. The result was that the workers in the engineering trade were declining to work overtime. If the Court ruled that they could not so decline there would be a certain novelty about the decision. His Honor admitted that while an in - dividual could refuse to work overtime it was quite a different thing when a union gave instructions on the point Air. Renn said that in most cases overtime was being paid on the wage, plus the be nas. Mr. Cooper ; X admit it is paid bv mofe employers than those who do not- pay it. Where it is not being paid it is in industries where overtime is essentia!. The Court reserved its decision.