FOREMEN AND AWARDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22956, 11 August 1936, Page 10

FOREMEN AND AWARDS

MR JUSTICE SIM QUOTED CIRCUMSTANCES THE GUIDE To clarify the position whether foremen must be members of a union, Mr H. Campbell, secretary of the Trades and Labour Council in Auckland, quotes Mr Justice Sim, who said: " Whether in any particular case a worker is to be treated as a foreman or leading hand depends on the circumstances of the case." In the Book of Awards, volume 2, there is reported a question answered by the judge in 1910, which, says Mr Campbell, is the precedent upon which unions act. The question was this:-—"Are employers, in engaging carpenters and joiners to act as working foremen in charge of carpentry or joinery work, bound to give preference to unionists? " Mr Justice Sim's answer was as follows:—" If a worker is really and substantially a foreman, then he is not subject to the provision of the preference clause. The fact that he may occasionally do some kind of carpenter's work would not bring him within the operation of the clause. If, however, a worker 's engaged substantially in doing the work of a carpenter, although he may also supervise the work of others, then he is a journeyman, and subject to the award. In other words, a bona fide foreman is not subject to the'award, but the leading hand on a job is subject to it." This judgment should clear any doubt from the minds of employers, said Mr Campbell, in discussing the matter.