SEAMEN’S DISPUTE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12393, 12 March 1926, Page 9

SEAMEN’S DISPUTE

QUESTION FOR ARBITRATION! PAYSIENT OF OVERTIME. The quwtion of whether overtime shall be paid on a veaAet from the time the watches are set, in casts where her *de-* pciture is delayed beyond midnight on that day, was tho subject of a dispute in the Arbitration Court (Mr Justice Fraser) vesterdav. Mr W. S. Smith appeared for tho Union Steamship Company, and Mr T. Young for the Seamen's Union. The point at issue, according to the employers statement, relates to the s.s. Kittawa at Westport on February 28tn, 1925, when her sailing was fixed for 11 p.m. and the watches of engine department hands were set at 8 p.m. Owing' to cargo operations not being finished, the vessel did not sail until after midnight. The union claims that the men shall be paid four hour's overtime from 8 p.m. to midnight on the ground that the ship did not actually sail on the same calendar day as that on which the watches were set, but half an hour after the end of that day. The employers contend that the overtime claimed is not payable as the time of sailing referred to in paragraph (a) of Clause 16 of the Award is not the time of actual departure, but the time fixed for the vessel’s departure, and that the chief engineer was, therefore, entitled to set the watches of the engine department hands at 8 p.m. on the dav in question. Paragraph (b) of Clause 16 deals with quite a different set of circumstances to those dealt with in paragraph (a). It is intended to deal with a case in which, owing to weather conditions, the sailing of the vessel has been definitely postponed for six hours or longer, in which case the court has provided that the wrlches shall be broken. It does not, provide, and, it was submitted, is not to provide that unavoidable delays such as cargo operations not being complete at the expected time as a result of delays through trucks not arriving or through accident, etc., shall involve the payment of overtime merely because the vesseFs sailing is delayed until after midnight on the day fixed for the vessel’s denarture.

Mr Young, for the Seamen’s Union, claimed that according to his construction, paragraph 16 referred only to delay caused by weather conditions, and under no other circumstances was it open tive. ... .. Judgment was reserved.