FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26779, 24 May 1948, Page 6

FORTY-HOUR WEEK

PROVISION RETAINED NEW TAXI AWARD OVERTIME CONDITIONS Industrial Correspondent WELLINGTON, May 23. A new award for the taxi industry issued at the week-end by the Court of Arbitration replaces one made by Judge Stevens on December 22 last. The New Zealand Taxi Proprietors’ Federation and the South Island employers appealed to the court against the award as issued by Judge Stevens, claiming that a 40-hour week for the taxi industry was impracticable. The court, however, has retained the 40-hour week, and made only slight amendments to the decision of Judge Stevens. The minimum wage remains at £6 10s a week. Overtime provisions have been varied to provide overtime on a daily as well as a weekly basis. All time worked in excess of nine hours daily is to be paid for at ordinary time, plus 6d an hour for the first hour, and thereafter at time and a-half. All time in excess of 40 hours weekly is to be paid at ordinary time, plus 6d an hour for the first 10 hours, and thereafter at time and a-half. A new clause provides that drivers are to make themselves available for up to 10 hours’ overtime in each week if and when required to do so by their employer. Mr Justice Tyndall, in a memorandum, says that this clause has been inserted with the object of assisting the taxi industry to maintain a service to ‘the public without increasing beyond 40 the weekly hours of work at ordinary rates of pay. Mr Justice Tyndall announces also that overtime clauses in this new award will not apply to the Otago provincial district so long as the decision of the Emergency Disputes Committee, which sat in Dunedin last September, remains in force. The court considers this provision necessary, says Mr Justice Tyndall, to avoid in the terms of the Emergency Regulations Act, 1939, any inconsistency with the Disputes Committee’s decision. It is expected within the taxi industry that the court’s decision t on this point will not materially delay the application of the overtime provisions to the Otago district, as the chairman of the Disputes Committee,. Mr S. Ritchie, can, by amending the order, immediately cancel his committee’s decision in favour of new award provisions.

The award of the court is to take effect from to-morrow, May 24, and will operate until December 31, 1948. Mr W. Cecil Prime, the employers representative on the court, in a dissenting opinion, says the hours of work and overtime clauses, whether in the form drawn by Judge Stevens or by the court, constitute an admission that the taxi business cannot be carried on efficiently under a working week of 40 hours. Mr Prime thinks, therefore, that Judge Stevens erred in reducing the hours of work. He says that notwithstanding the difficulties inherent in withdrawing from workers anything once granted, he considers the court should have restored the former hours and so enabled the taxi industry to render better service to the public.