BREACH OF AWARD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 16

BREACH OF AWARD

COURT FINES EMPLOYER TIME AND WAGES BOOK [BY TELEGRAPH —OWN COnnESPONTtENT] TE AWAMUTU, Friday Charges of failing to give an employee the stipulated half-holiday from June 15 to July 18, last year, and of failing to keep a time and wages book as required by the Shops and Offices Act, were brought by the Department of Labour against a local bakery firm, C. Maxwell, Limited, in the To Awamutu Magistrate's Court to-day. Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M., presided. The defendants, who were represented by Mr. J. Oliphant, pleaded guilty. The department asked for penalties totalling £4O. Mr. Oliphant said that prior to coming to Te Awamutu the firm was in business in Taihape, where no award was in existence. The Te Awamutu business was a much larger one and the firm had been very hard pressed to cope with the growing demand. The firm had not been aware of an award until last July, when the new award was announced. The employees concerned were not experienced bakers and he asked that the penalty be made as light as possible. The magistrate said the wages book had been falsified, and, apart from the fact that the employees had been deprived of their rightful wages, he had to consider the effect of unfair competition on opposition businesses which were paying full award wages. He imposed a penalty of £lO and fined defondants £3 and costs in respect of each charge.