PAYING WORKERS FOR HOLIDAYS

Southland Times, Issue 23379, 10 December 1937, Page 4

PAYING WORKERS FOR HOLIDAYS

Recommendation To

Employers DISSATISFACTION WITH INTERPRETATION (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 9. The recent interpretation by the Court of Arbitration of the Factories Act on holiday payments has been the subpect of inquiry by the Advisory Board of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation which has issued the following statement: —“This interpretation requires that factory workers if employed at any time in the fortnight ending on the day of the holiday, must be paid for Christmas Day which falls on a Saturday, and for Boxing Day which falls on a Sunday, in addition to their week’s wages. We believe this was not the intention of Parliament when the law was passed and that it is probably not even a correct interpretation of the law as it stands. “We have therefore approached the Government and asked that the original intention of the legislation as we understood it in 1936 and as expressed by the Department of Labour subsequently, be given full effect to. This intention is clearly expressed in the following extract from an official letter of the Department of Labour written before the interpretation by the Court.

“When the holiday occurs on Saturday the department does not insist on payment being made to regular hands whose employment is from Monday to Friday in each week. So long as in each week the worker received his full week’s wages we consider the Act has been complied with, and that it is not necessary to pay him an extra day’s wages merely by reason of the fact that the holiday in that particular instance, as for example Boxing Day last, occurs on a Saturday. RECOMMENDATION TO EMPLOYERS “We also hope to have an opportunity of obtaining an interpretation of the law from the Supreme Court. “Pending the final decision of the question the Advisory Board recommends all employers to withhold payment, this action to be entirely without prejudice to any rights the workers may ultimately be decided to have and which, in respect of Boxing Day 1936, might be affected by the effluxion of time. The board wishes it to be clearly understood that the recommendation is only that payment be deferred until the position has been finally cleared up. If the result is confirmation of the present interpretation, no workers should be prejudiced as to their right to payment through any technical advantage which might accrue to the employers because of the delay.”