HOLIDAYS WITH PAY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4189, 26 May 1939, Page 5

HOLIDAYS WITH PAY

PROPOSED LEGISLATION. A SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS. The proposed introduction of legislation providing for holidays with pay for all employees was brought before the Waipa County Council at its meeting on Wednesday in a letter from the secretary of the Auckland Provincial Employers’ * Association, who forwarded a copy of the Government’s proposals for subsidisation of workers in industry. The same writer advised that the Minister of Labour has made available a copy of the Holidays With Pay Bill which he proposes to introduce to Parliament at the forthcoming session, and has requested organisations of employers to consider the proposal and let him have before the 6th June any comments or suggestions they wish to make. The main features of the Bill are as follows: 1. All workers employed for hire or reward shall receive two weeks’ annual holiday on full- pay. with a. proportionate holiday where the employment is for one week or more. Special provision has been made to meet the case of casual waterside employment. 2. Where the provisions of any award or agreement or the conditions of service are less favourable to the worker than the provisions of the legislation, then the latter shall prevail. 3. The annual holiday shall not include public or statutory holidays. 4. The holiday shall be granted on full pay, including in such full pay the cash equivalent of board and lodging or other special allowance. 5. The pay of persons employed on an output or piece work basis shall be calculated on the basis of the average earnings over the period of six months prior to the holiday, or over the period of employment, whichever is the greater. 6. No worker shall contract himself out of the provisions of the Act. 7. No worker shall during any period of annual holiday of one week or more engage in paid employment. 8. A holiday, book shall be kept by the employer showing date of entry into his service of each persons employed, the date on which the annual holiday is taken by each person, and the amount paid to each person in respect of such holiday. 9. Penalties are prescribed for breaches of the Act, and the dismissal of workers to avoid payment for the holiday is prohibited. 10. The Act shall be administered by the Department of Labour.

A councillor: Yes, I think we should support that! The sooner it. is introduced the sooner the bubble will burst! (Laughter.) Cr J. T. Johnson said the proposal industrial awards already made that provision. The Minister wanted constructive comments on the proposal. Cr Onion said the plain inference was that costs must rise. Could industry stand it? Some one suggested that application might be made to the Minister to provide a fortnight’s holiday on full pay to the farmers! Cr Onion asserted that the costs on the farm were being forced up, resulting in many farmers reducing the number of employees, and the consequence was that there were more farmers’ wives and children employed in the milking sheds than ever before. The chairman: The Minister asks for comment.

A councillor: But how can we comment upon it and still be polite enough for our comment to be forwarded to the Minister! (Laughter.)

Cr Livingstone said the outlook was not bright. The whole trend was to force the price of farming up. Sheep men on second class land could not operate at a profit. Equities in farm land were being lost. Overseas markets were lost, through restrictions and ever-rising 1 costs. Cr Garland pointed out that nearly all employee's already have 111 days off work each year, and surely the Minister does not suggest that more holidays were needed. Reduced production must be the result of more holidays, and payment for holidays made an undue penalty on the producers. After some further comments, the chairman and clerk were deputed to frame a reply to the Minister.