HOLIDAY PAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26229, 13 August 1946, Page 4

HOLIDAY PAY

DECISION IN BAKERY CASE PRIVY COUNCIL MAY BE INVOKED Many thousands of pounds in back holiday pay for workers are involved in a Court of Appeal decision which the master bakers may seek leave to contest before the Privy Council. The Court of Appeal decision, reported recently, will affect workers throughout the Dominion. If the decision stands (says the Dominion), then workers when they take their annual holidays must be paid at the rate of their ordinary weekly wage, not necessarily the award minimum. This will affect not only the baking trade, but others where workers’ weekly pay, exclusive of overtime, is normally in excess of award minimums, and whose employers have paid holiday money at award minimum rates. It is understood that claims by workers can be made no more than 12 months retrospectively.

The original case was brought in Auckland, where a journeyman baker, James Raymond Moon, claimed further holiday pay from Kent’s Bakeries, Ltd. He asked to be paid holiday pay on the basis of the extra money he normally received for working in penalty time—before 4 a.m.

The worker’s claim was upheld by Mr J. H. Luxford, S.M. An appeal was made in the Supreme Court, where it was reversed. A further appeal, however, made on behalf of the worker to the Court of Appeal, was upheld by a majority decision, and the Magistrate’s* original ruling was restored. ■ With so much at stake in this matter, it is believed that the employers may seek leave to take the case to the Privy Council. So far, it is understood, payment of back holiday pay in terms of the Court of Appeal decision has not been enforced.