APPEAL ALLOWED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23592, 28 February 1940, Page 14

APPEAL ALLOWED

ACTION BY GAS COMPANY ARBITRATION COURT JUDGMENT Judgment on an appeal on a point of law and a matter of fact from a decision of Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., was delivered by the Arbitration Court yesterday. The appellant was the Auckland Gas Company, Limited (Air. Alderton), and the respondent the New Zealand Plumbers and Gasfitters' Industrial Union of Workers (Mr. Tuck). The union in the original 'action claimed to recover from the company a penalty of .£lO for an alleged breach of the New Zealand (except Nelson) plumbers and gasfitters' award. The company, it was alleged, had employed certain" workers coming within the scope of this award as plumbers and gasfitters, and had failed to pay them the minimum wage prescribed in tho award. The magistrate decided that there had been a breach, but stated that the circumstances called for nothing more than a nominal penalty. Mr. Justice O'Regan stated that the prevailing practice had been in vogue for 30 years, and the Court was satisfied that thore was insufficient evidence in this case to justify a finding that there was any breach of the award. Accordingly the appeal was allowed. Leave was' reserved to the appellant company to apply for costs. Air. A. L. Monteith, who .differed from the majority of the Court, considered that it was clear that at the time of the alleged breach work in connection with hot-water apparatus came within the scope of plumbers' work.