ARBITRATION COURT DELIVERS JUDGMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18419, 22 March 1928, Page 5

ARBITRATION COURT DELIVERS JUDGMENT.

SCOOP-DRIVERS AND SLAUGHTERMEN’S CASES.

The Arbitration Court has delivered judgment in regard to the application of the scoop-drivers for an award. The application of the Freezing Works and Related Trades Employees’ Union for an interpretation of their award in regard to slaughtermen’s payment for waiting time has also been dealt with. In regard to the scoop-drivers, the Court previously had held that these drivers were not covered by the general drivers' award, in that scoops were implements rather than vehicles. The Court gives its decision that an award shall not be made, as the number of employers cited as parties to the award was small, and the evidence adduced by the union related to the conditions of employment obtaining in the service of one employer only. The evidence is regarded as insufficient to enable the Court to make an award of general d|>plication. In regard to the application for an interpretation of the Freezing Workers’ Award with regard to the payment due to slaughtermen for waiting-time, the Court gives its interpretation as follows: “When a slaughterman is required to wait fifteen minutes or more for work, in the event of a cut-out, he becomes a time-worker, in that he is paid for waiting at an hourly rate. The smoke-oh period, if it comes in the course of waiting-time that is required to be paid for, is to be treated as time waited, and is to be paid for accordingly, as in the case of ordinary time-workers. The meal hour, however, is not to be regarded as time occupied in waiting for work, unless the men are required to be on hand during that hour. Ordinary timeworkers would not be paid for a meal hour during which they were free to do as they pleased, and the same rule must apply to slaughtermen.”