SMALL JUDGMENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19993, 9 November 1927, Page 2

SMALL JUDGMENT

CASE AGAINST BUTCHER UNION PROCEEDINGS INSTITUTED A claim for £lO was made by the Inspector of Awards (Mr E. W. F. Gohns) in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday from W. Tucker butcher, it being stated that on August 8, the latter employed Jack Foy as an assistant, failing to notify the union, as required by the award, of the starting and finishings time of the employee. Inspector Gohns stated that defendant had employed the assistant temporarily in place of one who had met with an accident. Mr V. B. Willis submitted that the information should be dismissed as trivial and excusable. The union knew definitely all the facts in regard to the employment of the temporary assistant, land the union secretary was notified that the position was a temporary one under the same terms as the assistant who was ill. The notification had been in the hands of two previous union secretaries and it was due to the activities of a third secretary that the defendant was before the Court. Counsel cootended that the attitude of the unioa was harsh and unreasonable.

The Inspector maintained that the employer should have given the notice as soon as the assistant was employed. He added that the complaint was not made by the present secretary. It was stated by the assistant that the union secretary arranged to call at the shop to obtain the necessary information.

The Magistrate (Mr J. S. Barton) found x hat there was proof of a breach. He was, however, inclined to agree that the spirit of the award had been met, and that the proceedings should not have been brought. Judgment for Is, with costs, was entered for plaintiff.