FUEL DEALERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23558, 22 July 1938, Page 7

FUEL DEALERS

OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND EMPLOYEES’ HOURS OF WORK ERROR IN AWARD RECTIFIED Provision for a 44-hour week for six months of the year and a 40-hour week for the remainder is contained in the Otago Wood and Coal Yard Employees’ Award, issued by the Court of Arbitration. The award, which involves approximately 140 employers in that portion of the Otago and Southland Industrial District, formerly known as the Otago Provincial District, is deemed to have come into force from January 3 last for a term of one year. The question of hours of work was the only matter referred to the court, which was confronted with an unusual situation. The court, in its memorandum attached to the award, states that there were only seven employers parties to the last award which came into operation on April 5, 1933, and applied to the area comprised in a radius of 10 miles from the Dunedin City Post Office. By an order of the court made on August 1, 1936. the hours of work were reduced from 44 to 40 per week, but without leave to work on Saturdays at ordinary rates. The application so to amend the award was one of a batch of 30 purporting to amend a series of awards in the building and related industries, and its inclusion, having passed unnoticed by the employers’ organisation, the Dunedin employers, parties to the award were never notified, and knew nothing of the order until it had actually come into operation. Thus, the question of applying the 40-hour week to the industry in Dunedin and suburbs was never argued until the application for a new award was heard in Dunedin on June 7.

On the application of the union the dispute covered that portion of the Otago and Southland industrial district comprising the provincial district of Otago, and involved approximately 140 employers. The claims included the continuance and, therefore, the extension of the 40-hour week, which had been made applicable originally by a pure inadvertence. Policy of Court The industry, being a retail one. is governed, not by the Factories Act but by the Shops and Offices Act, the court points out, and the Legislature has been careful to ensure a longer working week under the latter Statute, inasmuch as the Shops and Offices Amendment Act, 1936. section 3, permits a working week of 44 hours. This provision was one of the factors influencing the court in all previous awards governing the sale and distribution of fuel. In each of these awards the court, having regard, of course, to the evidence, ordained a 44-hour week for six months of the year and a 40-hour week for the remainder of the year. By an oversight, an exception to the consistent policy of the court occurred ,in Dunedin and suburbs, and the court, by a majority, has decided that the error must now be rectified, and the award brought into line with the others applying to the industry throughout the Dominion The court further points out that nothing previously stated must be taken to mean that the court has decided against additional payment pro rata for hours exceeding 40 per week. The majority of the court has decided that the several contemporaneous awards in the industry should be consistent one with the other, and that any alteration should be made upon a Dominion basis. Mr Monteith dissented from this opinion.

Provisions of Award The award includes the following provisions:— The hours of work during the six months from April 15 to October 15. inclusive, shall be 44 per week, and during the six months from October 16 to April 14 inclusive, shall be 40 per week. The day’s work shall not exceed eight hours, to be worked between 7.45 a.m. and 5 p.m. on five days of the week, and four hours to be worked between 7.45 a.m. and noon on the day of the weekly half-holiday. The following shall be the minimum rates of wages:—(a) Weekly employees, £4 10s per week: (b) hourly employees. 2s 4d per hour. All time worked in any one day outside or in excess of the hours prescribed shall be paid for at the rate of time and a-half for the first three hours, and double time thereafter. The following shall be the recognised holidays: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day. and the day following. Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Labour Day and the Sovereign’s Birthday, Work done on Sundays or on any of the foregoing holidays or on any day generally observed in lieu thereof, shall be paid for at the rate of double time. Not more than five hours shall be worked without an interval of at least half an hour for a meal. Workers called upon to work overtime after 6 p.m. shall be paid a meal allowance of Is 6d, provided they cannot reasonably get home for a meal, or have not been notified on the previous day of being required to work. All wages, including overtime, shall oe paid weekly in the -employers’ time not later than Thursday in each week, and, in the case of casuals, immediately on completion of their work, should the employment be terminated before Thursday.

Deductions may be made from the wages of weekly workers for time lost through sick-.ess or default, or for any cause over which the employer has no control. One week’s notice oi the termina tion of the employment shall be given by either party in the case of weekly workers, and one hour’s notice shall be given in the case of casual workart., but nothing in this award shall prevent an employer from summariU dismissing a worker for good cause [f any weekly worker with not less than three months’ continuous service is dismissed by the employer for other than good cause within two weeks prior to Christmas Day he shall nevertheless be paid for Christmas Deiy. Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and the day following. This award shall apply to the coal and firewood distributing industry

Term of Award This award, in so far as it relates to wages, shall be deemed to have come into force on January 3. 1933 and shall continue" in force until January 3 1939.