BREACHES OF AWARD

Taranaki Daily News, 8 April 1927, Page 8

BREACHES OF AWARD

TECHNICAL OFFENCES PROVED. CIVIL ACTION AGAINST JAKISH. Two breaches of the Tearoom and Restaurant Award were proved against Samuel Jakish in a civil action brought in the Magistrate’s Court at New Plymouth yesterday by G. R. A. Whiting, inspector of factories. Mr. R. W. Tate, S.M., said he thought the breaches were not very serious, and that judgment for plaintiff with 10s 6d solicitor’s fees for each breach would meet the case. The first offence was that a statement of working hours and holidays due each worker was not posted in the premises, and the second was that Jakish did not keep a holiday book to be signed by each employee in acknowledgment of the weekly half-holiday taken. A penalty of £lO was claimed. in each case. The inspector said that lie visited Jakish’s shop on February 11 and asked to see the holiday book. Jakish said he did not keep one, but he produced a wages and time book, in which the week was divided into seven sections. The daily wages earned were shown in each section, and in the. fourth was an intimation that this was the half-holi-day. Counsel for Jakish said it would be contended that the whole of the information that would have been given in the statement and holiday book was, with the exception that the employee did not actually sign for his holiday, already contained in the wages and time book. During last year an officer of the Labour Department explained the working of the time bftok to Jakish, and authorised him to carry on as before with the book then in use, but to make the suggested alterations in the book starting in January, 1927, said defendant’s counsel. The old book showed a nought or blank so far as the halfholiday was concerned. Fortunately the method adopted in the 1927 book was indicated in the old book in the handwriting of the departmental officer. This was not Mr. Whiting, but a man named Smith. Neither under the Act nor the award was there anything to show why a wages and time book and holiday book could not be combined’. This was a civil action, and it was contended that the inspector was stopped from denying the sufficiency of the wages and time book. It was futile for the department to say it did not approve the book, when it was approved by one of its own officers. Even if the estoppal were doubtful there was a substantial compliance. The proprietors were foreigners, and it was held that in tho eircumstances the breach regarding the holiday book was excusable. With reference to the other breach, the statement was torn down from the kitchen wall during renovations, and was not put up again pending painting. There was only one employee. If there were an offenee it was a technical one, and trivial and excusable. Evidence was given by J. V. Kurta, described as a partner in the business. The magistrate said that tinder the circumstances the breach could not lie regarded very seriously. The wages and time book itself showed the man had

had a half day. But the fact remained that whatever was done after the visit of the inspector last year, Jakish did not now possess a holiday book or have a statement in the kitchen. Mr. Tate advised defendant strictly to comply with the award in the future. It seemed that Kurta had misunderstood the inspector last year.