AN INTERESTING CASE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 135, 31 July 1911, Page 5

AN INTERESTING CASE.

BREACH OF TRAWLERS’ AWARD. (Per Press Association.) Dunedin, June 30. In the Magistrate’s Court on Saturday, Mr Haselden, S.M., held a case in which the Inspector of Awards sued the Unecda Trawling Co. for £lO as a penalty for a breach of the Dunedin Trawlers’ Award by employing four mbn more than 70 hours during the week ended May 12, and having failed to pay the prescribed overtime rates.- The men were employed on the Waitangi and were paid for 70 hours that week, it being maintained by the Labour Department that they were entitled to he paid for 72 hours. During that week there was foggy weather, which curtailed the trawling. Mr J. C. Stephens, for the defence, said that in the exigencies of such a business a wide interpretation should bo given to the clause allowing time to bo deducted. Special circumstances, such as a breakdown of the machinery during the time the men were idle, might happen, or the weather may prevent any trawling being done for days during the week, yet the men were paid for the whole week.

■ The evidence showed that during the week the net was lost and the vessel got ashore for a time on Pulling Point. The case stands partly hoard.