HOLIDAY PAY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3843, 7 December 1936, Page 5

HOLIDAY PAY

IMPORTANT RULING FOR FORTY HOUR WEEK WORKERS. An important ruling which supports the attitude employers are taking regarding payment of wages for the Boxing Day holiday has been made by the Labour Department in Wellington on a similar point arising from the recent Labour Day holiday. In a factory the subject of the ruling a section of shift workers had a Monday off in the ordinary course of t.hC shift rota. Labour Day fell on that day, and the employees concerned considered they were entitled to extra pay on that day, as the Factories Act provided for the payment of wages on a holiday. The department has ruled against them, on the ground that they were already paid for the holiday as part of the ordinary working week. On this ruling, factory workers on the 40 hour week with no work on Saturday will not be entitled to extra payment for Boxing Day, which falls on a Saturday. If they were paid extra for the holiday, it would mean that they would be given one day’s more wages in the week than other workers who usually work on Saturday. The intention of the Act, employers contend, is to ensure that workers do not lose wages because of statutory holidays falling within particular weeks.