HOTEL DISPUTE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22434, 2 June 1936, Page 14

HOTEL DISPUTE

WAGES OF STAFF

"TAR AND FEATHER THREAT 1 "

ALLEGATIONS IN COURT [JIY TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] TIMARU, Monday An allegation that while others of the establishment waited to tar and feather him a member of the staff of The Hermitage, Mount Cook, remained in a room behind a locked door, was made in the Timaru Magistrate's Court, before Mr. C. It. Orr-Walker, S.M., when Charles Digby Elms, licensee of The Hermitage, was charged with breaches of the New Zealand Licensed Hotel Employees' award. The Labour Department claimed penalties of £lO on each of three counts as follows:—That between December 20, 19.'15, and February 21, 10.'16, Elms employed Hector King as barman at a weekly wage of £2 7s instead of £3 2s 6d as laid down by the award; that lie employed A. H. McDonald as barman at a similar rate; and that between December 20, 1935, and January 20, 19,"36, ho worked divers employees in excess of the hours specified in the award. Mr. 11. T. Bailey, deputy-chief inspector of factories, with Mr. G. McKessar, inspector of factories at Timaru, prosecuted, while Mr. W. J. Sim represented Elms. Former Clerk's Evidence Irene Leslie, who was clerk at The Hermitage until early this year, said overtime had not been paid, even when it was shown on the time sheets. Elms had instructed her to enter each employee as working eight hours daily six days a week, no matter what hours they really did work. Mr. Sim: 1 am instructed that King locked himself in his room because he was frightened to come out. Witness denied this statement, also a suggestion that she took meals to King. Mr. Sim: The staff were waiting to tar and feather him ? Witness: The staff were up against him.

Members of the staff were waiting for King with a bucket of ealcomine, said Mr. Sim, but witness denied all knowledge of it. She also said she did not protect King. Hector King said ho was engaged as barman at The Hermitage early in December last year. He was paid £2 7s a week. During the Christmas and New Yeafr period he worked in the bar as many as 19 hours at a stretch. He did not receive anything extra for overtime.

Mr. Bailey: There is some suggestion that you locked yourself in your room a day or two before you left for fear the staff would manhandle you. What do you say to thatP Reply by Witness King: One night I went to my room as soon as I finished work. I had been in the room for about a quarter of an hour when three men came in. They were drunk and wanted me to get out of bed to light. The fight did not last long. The reason, so far as 1 could gather, was that 1 was not overgenerous in the bar where the staff were concerned. It was a case of fighting three men, and during the fight I was kicked.

Mr. Sim said the company had paid £ll 19s 4d overtime, not as nn admission of a breach of the award, but simply to avoid dislocation at The Hermitage and to clear up the whole business. Counsel submitted that the cases should he dismissed.

Charles Digbv Elms, manager of The Hermitage, said King used to get drunk on his day off, and next day he would not appear at work. Witness denied telling Miss Leslie to enter up each employee as working eight hours a day. He had never employed n straight-out barman. The magistrate reserved his decision on two of the cases and the third was dismissed.

FULL WAGES NOT PAID COURT FINES EMPLOYER [from oxrn own corrkspondbnt] HAMILTON. Monday A well-borer, Harry Richards, pleaded guilty in the Hamilton Police Court to-day to two charges of failing to pay two employees full wages. An inspector of the Labour Department said defendant had been very haphazard in paying wages, and was still in arrears with amounts due to the workmen. Defendant was fined 10s od each count.